I challenged a friend of mine who works long shifts at an ER about why they allowed doctors to work tired, when other industries like airline pilots, air traffic controllers, truckers, even factory workers abide by restricted schedules to make sure they are well-rested.

He pointed out the caregiver handoff is also a source of errors--the departing doctor can't fully describe the history and their thought processes about every aspect of every patient they are treating. And people sometimes make mistakes on charts. He said the schedule at his hospital, at least, tries to strike a balance between continuity of care and fully rested doctors.

This is true to a certain extent. Another major factor is unavailability of suitably qualified and experienced doctors. Especially in high stress/low prestige specialties like emergency medicine.

OK. This actually makes sense. This seems like something that IBM Watson could make a dent in solving.

You're ignoring the much more strict training and operating systems in place for them, when an instructor pilot corrects their mistakes before they become fatal. Once they "graduate" to a certain level of pilot, or for a given plane model, they still have a copilot who they might be training, but who is also supposed to point out when they are making a mistake.

The demands are also different: pilots don't get called out of their normal schedule to be asked about a problem they observed with plane X the last time they flew it (rather, they're supposed to report it at the end of the flight and mechanics will look at it).

Emergencies also have a different nature, I gather its much more likely you'll be short flyable planes than air crews. A look at the Berlin airlift might be instructive. A book I recently read on the WWII air war in the South Pacific said that was true for both sides. Although of course the rules in wartime are different.