医学人文研究所为因应时代潮流，基于
医学与人文领域之跨领域整合，拓深医学中本有的人文精神及其研究，
提升人文涵养及实践精神，秉持着「以医学厚植人文，以人文实践医学」之教育宗旨，强调以多元化方式，启发熏陶学生具敏锐、宏观视野、又能反思的医疗人文素养为教育理念，养成研究生能够具有自我反思、问题的理论与实务之份析批判，并具国际观视野等能力之教育目标。
The former president of Taipei Medical University (then Taipei Medical College), Professor Hu Chun-hong, established the Medical Research Humanities Section in 1993 under the leadership of Professor Hsiao Liao-ching. In 1994 this was raised to become the Medical Humanities Center, and in 2003 the Center was transformed into the present GIMH, which is an independent institute within the university. So it has become TMU’s “first research institute for humanities and sociology, and the first institute within all of Taiwan that engages humanities in a multidisciplinary program with medicine.”