Democrats may kiss 60th Senate vote goodbye: MedCity Morning Read, Jan. 19, 2010

Highlights of the important and interesting from the world of health care:

Could Democrats lose 60th Senate vote? Due to nonsensical Senate rules, Democrats need 60 votes to get anything done. And they’re in danger of losing that 60th vote in a special Senate election in Massachusetts that will fill the seat previously held by the deceased Ted Kennedy. And things aren’t looking good, if you’re a supporter of health reform. Republican state Sen. Scott Brown leads in six of seven polls, MinnPost reports, and he’s never lost an election. President Obama has stumped for the Democratic candidate, Attorney General Martha Coakley, but that doesn’t seem to be helping much. What once appeared a longshot–Democrats losing a Senate race for the first time in 38 years in liberal Massachusetts– is now a painfully strong possibility. So what’s the plan for health reform?

Convincing House Democrats to support in full the bill the Senate passed on Dec. 24 looks to be the top option, the New York Times reports. Since the final legislation was expected to lean more heavily to the Senate side, that certainly seems the more palatable option. Other less-favored options include pushing a revised health care bill through the Senate before the new Massachusetts senator is sworn in, or trying to use a procedural tactic known as budget reconciliation that would require only 51 votes, the Times reports.

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J&J stumbles in recall: Reversing a textbook crisis-management triumph from a generation ago, Johnson & Johnson took its sweet time issuing a recall of a number of consumer medicines including Benadryl, Motrin, Rolaids, Simply Sleep, St. Joseph Aspirin and Tylenol. In doing so it made itself look “complacent and sloppy” and drew some heavy criticism from the FDA, one clinical marketing professor told the New York Times. J&J waited 20 months to issue a recall after first receiving consumer complaints of a moldy smell in Tylenol Arthritis Relief. Further, “the company did not conduct a timely, comprehensive investigation, did not quickly identify the source of the problem, and did not notify authorities in a timely fashion, prolonging consumer exposure to the products,” the FDA said, according to the Times.

J&J’s ham-handed response seemed out of character for a company that drew praise for its handling of a 1982 potential PR crisis, when some people died from tainted Tylenol. This time around, the company blamed the problem on the breakdown of a chemical used to treat wood pallets that transport and store product packaging, causing the moldy smell in some products.

Breast cancer controversy in Britain: Like the U.S., Great Britain is having its own debate about breast cancer screening. The latest round comes from an article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, which says 7,000 women a year may receive a wrong diagnosis of breast cancer, the Telegraph reports. Further, despite assertions that screening saves 1,400 lives a year, there is no evidence the program has cut deaths, the article says.

Women may be wrongly told they have cancer and so undergo unnecessary treatment and screening may detect tumors that would not progress to be harmful and so could also be removed needlessly. The unnecessary treatments may expose women to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery which itself has harmful effects.

Nursing attracting workers from other professions: With the much-noted nursing shortage expected to bear down on the U.S. in coming years and decades, it’s a good thing that workers are leaving declining professions to jump into nursing. The Columbus Dispatch takes a look at one such prospective nurse, Travis Minzler, a former production manager for manufacturing firms who’s twice been laid off and once taken a buyout over the last 15 years. Minzler quit his job, tightened his budget and took out loans to fund the nearly $30,000 tuition for a 13-month “second-degree” program, which, as the name implies, is designed for people who already hold a degree in another field. Of course, nursing isn’t for everyone, however.

“I always tell entering students, ‘You have to be an excellent student, but don’t choose nursing unless you have a passion and concern for others,’ ” the nursing school’s president said. ‘ ”If not, then nursing is not the career for you.’ ”