Deutsches rzteblatt International is a bilingual weekly online journal of clinical medicine and public health. As the official journal of the German Medical Association and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians we publish independent, peer-reviewed articles from all branches of clinical medicine. In addition, you will find editorials and a section devoted to scientific discussion (correspondence). We hope that for our international readership our journal will be both an important source of medical information and a window to the German medical scene.