Resident Duty Hour Restrictions: Is Less Really More?^*

It is our opinion that proceeding with additional regulations without appropriate evaluation of current outcomes and without advanced planning to determine optimal infrastructure, resources, methods, personnel, and scheduling required to optimize the training of new specialists and subspecialists gravely risks the delivery of patient care and the future of medical education and research. We urge the ACGME and IOM to reconsider broadly applying duty hour restrictions without considering level of training, allowing more advanced subspecialty trainees the autonomy that advanced educational objectives requires. Most importantly, we recommend that the current duty hour rules be evaluated by rigorous scientific methods before implementation of any new regulations at the national level. References are available at www.jpeds.com.