Context and setting The traditional 6-year curriculum at Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, produces graduates who are well known in Colombia as good clinicians and who are prone to specialisation. However, they tend to have deficiencies in primary care and administrative knowledge, both of which are very important to general practice work. New general practitioners (GPs), who are more knowledgeable about prevalent diseases and better able to use a rational approach to diagnostic tests and pharmacological treatment, are required in Colombia. Based on state examination results and surveys of former students and employers, we identified the need to build a new medical professional profile and to define a new set of competencies. Students, graduates, employers, faculty members and former deans participated in a series of surveys, workshops and interviews through which they defined a new medical professional profile and an accompanying set of competencies. Why the idea was necessary Defining a new medical professional profile and reviewing the importance and acquisition of competencies in the current curriculum highlighted the need to develop a new curriculum map and to define the activities that would facilitate the achievement of the newly defined competencies. Early clinical exposure, integration of the basic and clinical sciences and increased experience in primary care scenarios were the strategies used in the new curriculum. What was done Competencies were grouped into five categories: professional values, attitudes, behaviour and ethics; scientific foundations; clinical medicine; public health and health systems, and communication, research, critical thinking and information management. Each competency category was assigned to a group of 10 teachers. They worked in parallel to define objectives, activities and assessment methods in order to fulfil the competencies, using the following strategies: Students are to be introduced to clinical practice earlier in the curriculum in order to improve their ability to communicate with patients and families and to increase their exposure to the administrative aspects of the health care system. Student exposure to clinical experiences in primary care scenarios is to be increased in order to ensure that students learn at least 80 of the most prevalent and important diseases, from their epidemiology to patient rehabilitation through clinical treatment, diagnostic aids and therapeutics. This is intended to prepare our medical graduates for GP work or for clinical, research or administrative specialisation. Knowledge of normal and abnormal systems is to be integrated and imaging and clinical diagnosis laboratory work introduced earlier in order to prepare students for the rational use of diagnostic tools in clinical practice. Research, critical thinking and ethics will be developed longitudinally from the first to the final semester. Evaluation of results and impact The development of these strategies has resulted in the design of a new curriculum, which will start in July 2009. None of the basic sciences will be taught as disciplines. The number of credits covered by gross anatomy will drop from 12 to six; this decrease will be replaced by credits for imaging and surgical morphology. Clinical exposure will take place from the second instead of the fifth semester. Primary care clinical experiences will account for 45% rather than 20% of clinical exposure. The 300 clinical sciences conferences currently in use will be replaced by 80 weekly teaching activities concerning principal diseases selected according to national prevalence and public and clinical importance. Activities will be developed using small-group strategies and will consider ethical and administrative aspects, as well as issues related to epidemiology, clinical practice, therapeutics and rehabilitation.