The Department Of Rheumatology And Immunology was founded in 2001. Its history is based upon two parent organisations. One of its predecessors was the Autoimmune Division of the First Department of Internal Medicine, which dates back to the 1950s, and functioned as the regional centre for inflammatory rheumatic diseases until the year 2001, when the independent University Department Of Rheumatology And Immunology was established. The heads of this Autoimmune Division were Professor György Bencze, who later became a department head at the National Institute of Rheumatology in Budapest, followed by Professor László Varga, and subsequently by Professor Gyula Pokorny. Under their leadership, the Division has become a widely respected medical centre for the four counties of South-East Hungary, and, in the 1990s, scientific research has brought international reputation for the Division.

The second predecessor of the Department was the Rheumatology Department of the former City Hospital of Szeged, where mostly patients with degenerative joint problems were treated with expertise in physiotherapy. These two entities were united in 2001 with the aim of the establishment of a new, independent university Department Of Rheumatology And Immunology. The functions of the new department have been: 1) to provide high-level medical care for patients with rheumatic diseases, 2) to organise the undergraduate university training in rheumatology and the graduate training of rheumatologist residents and also of the continuing medical education in rheumatology, and 3) to perform research work related to musculoskeletal and other immune-mediated diseases.

The first home of the Department was the old building of the former City Hospital of Szeged. In 2007, all the medical services of the city of Szeged were united within the Albert Szent-Györgyi Health Centre of the University of Szeged. Thereby, the former university departments and the City Hospital and City Clinic were amalgamated in one unit. Since that, the Department Of Rheumatology And Immunology has two divisions: 1) the specialised, regional centre of rheumatology with in-patient and out-patient units (Kálvária sugárút Division), and 2) the Clinic Division, serving as a routine rheumatology specialist service of the city of Szeged and its surroundings. In 2008, Professor Pokorny has retired from the division head position, and subsequently the Department Of Rheumatology And Immunology was supervised by Professor Tibor Wittmann, head of the 1st Department of Internal Medicine as director in-charge. In 2009, the Department has been moved to the renovated building of the Kálvária sugárút Block of the Clinical Centre. Since 2011, László Kovács is the director of the Department Of Rheumatology And Immunology.