Address correspondence to Prof. F.P. Cappuccio, Clinical Sciences Research Institute, University of Warwick, Warwick Medical School, U.H.C.W. Campus, Clifford Bridge Road, Coventry CV2 2DX, UK. email: f.p.cappuccio@warwick.ac.uk The Modernization of the National Health Service (N.H.S.) and medical careers have brought over the last 10 years or more growing pressures and demands for radical changes in the way we deliver safe and effective healthcare and train new doctors to fit these changes. At the same time, there has been increasing awareness at a European level that both patients and doctors are exposed to health risks due to excessive working hours of junior doctors. A legislative framework to reduce average working hours to no more than 48 h/week was then introduced in Europe (with the view to be implemented fully on 1 August 2009), which has added to the challenges and has sparked a much heated debate.