The Centre was established in 1994, in the former "Trovatelli" Hospital of Pisa (for orphans), for the purpose of conserving and promoting the historical-scientific heritage of the Pisa Hospital Authority. A rich collection of medical instruments (about 800 objects) is exhibited on the first floor. The collection, coming from the Santa Chiara Hospital, includes surgical instruments and those for diagnostics and therapy dating from the mid-19th century, such as a sphygmograph for recording the arterial pulse, a Potain aspirator for performing thoracentesis (puncture of the thoracic cavity for draining) and a Forlanini device for treating tuberculosis. The centre also contains coeval hospital records, including the inventories of the Pisa Hospital Authority and a collection of catalogues from instrument manufacturers. The oldest archives are kept, instead, in the Pisa State Archives. The Hospital Authority's present-day heritage of records has recently been computerised and inserted in a data base containing over 12,000 documents.