It doesn't seem like you care much about it ("scientific research"), but IMO it's much more likely to put programs in place to help doctors learn basic literacy/documentation skills than to subvert the basic biological truth that staying up for as long as most medical students/residents/etc are forced to do puts them in a state equivalent to drunk driving. (http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/09/20/sleep.deprivation/) I do NOT want someone crashing my health into a ditch because they were too tired to miss something important. Also if you don't have enough doctors? Maybe you should start training more of them, instead of artificially limiting supply. (Residency placement slots are a whole other issue, of course, but still not something that should stymie a first world country so.)
I've had way too much experience with rude, sleepy, and grumpy residents who bungled my medical care in the last two years of frequent ER and inpatient stays to have much trust in the profession as a whole. I mean, if you're going to charge me $50,000 for your crappy medical care, could you at least not snap at me? Or forget me in an observatory room for over 12 hours waiting for a scan? They "lost" me in the system somehow until a nurse wondered why I'd been sitting there so long, called radiology, and left the room to bitch them out about forgetting me. Since the doctors couldn't be bothered to tell me what they were checking for, I only found out 13 or so hours later that the scan was to rule out a carotid artery dissection. I was in extreme pain the whole time, which they did nothing to even try to alleviate. Incredible lack of empathy.
I'm glad to hear that your hospital has gone to at least trying to adhere to reasonable shift limits; it's a sign that at least some people in some hospital systems have decided that policies leading to killing or crippling patients is something that should be prevented, not encouraged. It's certainly not something I've seen in the major medical systems in my state. :(