Background: As of October 1, 2003, a new government-initiated legislative basis for undergraduate medical education was initiated in Germany which resulted in substantial changes to the structure of the medical curriculum and in a heightened teaching load.
Methods: The Medical Faculty of the University of Dresden established an interdisciplinary reform curriculum in 1998. Since then a hybrid model of traditional lectures, seminars, practical and problem-based learning courses has been implemented for all courses in undergraduate medical training (Dresdener Integrated Problem-based Learning: DIPOL).
Results: Examplarly for all other DIPOL courses, the 2003 evaluation results of the "Emergency medicine-Injuries-Intensive care medicine" are presented and show that the course was very well received by students and tutors, and that 95% of the students passed the exams.
Conclusions: The DIPOL anesthesiology course conforms with the new German federal law. A continuous further evaluation is an essential part of quality control and is necessary for the further development of a new curriculum.