These days when a deal gets done—and the $68 billion Pfizer-Wyeth tie-up won’t close until Q3 the earliest—it’s so weird people get tongue-tied in their haste to spread the news.

Just 2 weeks ago Pfizer trip-wired news tickers by announcing it would riff 800 researchers, but people knew there had to be more coming if it wanted to retain its title as the biggest fish in the Big Pharma Sea.

Every calendar at Pfizer HQ has 2011—the year Lipitor loses patent protection—circled in red. Lipitor, the best selling drug in the world, accounts for 25% of the company’s $48 billion annual revenue.

Pfizer plans to borrow $22.5 billion from 5 banks to finance its big swallow. It’ll pony up stock and cash to cover the rest. The offer for Wyeth translates to $50 per share, a 29% premium.

Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler’s legacy will be tied to the Wyeth deal. Since arriving there 2 years ago, he’s fired 15,000 employees, closed labs and sold off production facilities to improve efficiency.

The Wyeth deal affords more such opportunities, but Kindler needs to show more than axe-wielding skills to erase memories of the Exubera fiasco in which the insulin spray was shelved after Pfizer dropped nearly $3 billion on its R & D.

Not to mention that Pfizer had to scrap a heralded Lipitor successor when it was discovered during clinical trials to kill people.

Wyeth’s appeal lies in its pneumoccal vaccine Prevnar, which cleared $2.5 billion in 2008, its anti-inflammatory drug Enbrel and its consumer health business which includes Chapstick, Robitussin and Advil.

Not that all these combined match what Lipitor did for Pfizer, but Kindler had to start somewhere.

Right now, 16% of all US retail hiring processes involve pre-screening job applicants with an online personality test created by Unicru, which was acquired recently by Massachusetts-based Kronos, Inc.

Kronos processed 10 million tests in 2008 alone, assessing things like self-control, adaptability and friendliness in an effort to weed out applicants poorly suited to retail work before the interview phase.

The test requires applicants to agree or disagree with 130 statements like, “you have to give up on some things that you start,” and “any trouble you have is your own fault.”

Many companies believe the test is effective. For example Kristopher Arnes, a Best Buy executive told the Wall Street Journal that Kronos’ automated screening process saves 250,000 to 300,000 hours in HR costs per year.

Whole Foods Market dropped the test however, finding that sunny personalities don’t necessarily translate into knowing how much cumin and allspice to throw into the couscous. 

Meanwhile, a whole subculture of cheating has bloomed around the test. Applicants often share answers and test-taking strategies, use answer sheets found online or even have a friend, presumably one with a pleasant disposition, take the test for them.

But Kronos isn’t worried about that, or if they are they aren’t saying. For one thing they claim, there’s been no drop-off in their tool’s performance when it comes to employee turnover, sales performance and what have you.

And Kronos executives don’t give much credence to those online answer sheets. “The way in which the answers relate to the job requirements is…not obvious,” test developer David Scarborough told the Journal.

They better hope not.

Using simple, cockpit-style checklists in operating rooms cuts mortality and complications by 40%, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The 19-item cheat sheets had tick-boxes for pre-operative activities including confirming the patient’s name and allergy history, and confirming equipment had been sterilized and prophylactic antibiotics had been administered.

Post-operative checks included specimen labeling and tool and equipment retrieving.

The one-year study of non-cardiac surgery involved 7,600 patients in urban and rural hospitals in 8 countries with locations including London, Seattle, Manila, New Delhi and Ifakara, Tanzania.

Hospitals using the checklists observed declines in serious complications from 11% to 7%. The highest reductions were noted in rural and underfunded hospitals.

“You take something as complex as surgery, and you think there isn’t a lot that can be done to make it better,” Atul Gawande told the Washington Post. The Brigham and Women’s hospital physician added, “a checklist seems like a no-brainer, but the size of the benefit is dramatic.”

The authors speculate that if all US operating rooms implemented the checklists, the US health system would save $15-25 billion per year by not having to treat avoidable complications.

Recent studies have shown that the average surgical complication in the US costs $12,000 to treat, and nearly half are preventable.

Worldwide, over 234 million surgical procedures are performed annually, and somewhere between 3 and 17% result in a major complication.

“We’re not great at doing the simple things all the time,” concluded Gawande. “If you miss a few percent here and a few percent there, it adds up.”

“I don’t get through a week where (the checklist) has not caught something,” he marvelled.