It is one of the 26 permanent institutes of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi and has been known as National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS) from 9th November 2005. The erstwhile Institute for Research in Medical Statistics (IRMS) came into existence in the year 1977 with the mandate to provide technical expertise on research methodology, programme evaluation, mathematical modelling, data analysis etc. It also provides technical assistance to institutes throughout india.

The tremendous involvement in the areas of medical statistics, bio-medical and bio-behavioral research, surveillance of communicable and non-communicable diseases, epidemiology, nutrition research, reproductive and child health and cancer research necessitated the renaming of the IRMS as NIMS. The move enhanced not only the status of the Institute but also enabled it to develop e-database of health sector reforms in India apart from strengthening its resources base and capacity building.

The Institute provides statistical back up for designing and analysis of disease surveillance, clinical trials of drugs and vaccines and RCH. It provides valuable inputs to the estimation of HIV infection in India. It has examined access and utilization of AYUSH in general population and population covered under CGHS. Exercising surveillance of ICMR's various research programmes for ensuring statistical adequacy and validity is one the important areas from its mandate. Organizing training programmes in the areas of research methodology in biomedical research has been the feature of the Institute. In fact, it is the only Institute of medical statistics in India.