Media Coverage

Steve Rusckowski, Chairman and CEO of Quest Diagnostics, discusses opening a highly automated diagnostic testing facility in New Jersey.

Meg Tirrell joins The Exchange with Quest Diagnostics CEO Steve Rusckowski to discuss the future of Covid testing. As the flu and cold seasons return, Rusckowski says, he expects more people will turn up to Covid testing when they present symptoms that are similar to those of Covid, the flu and the common cold.

Laboratory testing is the backbone of many clinical decisions. Laboratory stewardship helps ensure testing is used for the right patients when it is truly needed. By Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH, Senior Corporate Medical Director, Quest Diagnostics.

An interview with Steve Rusckowski, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Quest Diagnostics. In 2020 the company launched Quest for Health Equity (Q4HE), an over $100 million initiative focused on addressing inequities in health care that affect underserved populations across the U.S. Quest serves half of the hospitals and one-third of the U.S. population annually. The company provides results for nearly two million tests daily, ranging from routine testing to breakthrough genetic testing.

U.S. health regulators authorized the use of the first artificial-intelligence tool designed to help doctors diagnose prostate cancer. The tool, Paige Prostate from New York startup Paige.AI Inc., analyzes digital scans of prostate biopsy slides and compares them against data sets of cell and tissue patterns previously identified as indicators of tumors. Quest Diagnostics Inc., which operates medical testing labs across the U.S., has tested Paige Prostate at its AmeriPath Inc. pathology unit and plans to use the software across various sites as soon as October, said Kristie Dolan, general manager of Quest’s oncology franchise operation.

About half of young children who were tested for lead had detectable levels of the toxic metal in their blood, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Pediatrics on Monday. The new study is the first to examine low levels of lead in children’s blood, enabled by more sensitive technology, said Harvey Kaufman, a co-author of the study. Kaufman is also senior medical director at Quest Diagnostics Inc., which performed the testing for the study.

Last week, Quest Diagnostic DGX issued its periodical media statement on the company’s COVID-19 testing-related business performance. The company noted a dramatic increase in testing demand through July to September, as the United States is seeing a surge in the Delta variant-led cases.

Illustrating the extent of the boom, Quest Diagnostics on Thursday raised its full-year revenue outlook by hundreds of millions of dollars. The Secaucus, N.J.–based company cited "stronger than anticipated" demand for its molecular Covid tests since it released its second quarter financial results and full-year guidance on July 22.

A new study suggests that U.S. cancer diagnoses have declined because of pandemic-related upheaval. Researchers from Quest Diagnostics used records of newly diagnosed cancer patients who received testing at Quest. In the year before the pandemic hit, the monthly average of new diagnoses was 32,000. In the most recent period, November 2020 to March 2021, the monthly average was about 26,000 — suggesting thousands of people skipped screening tests or checkups in the last year.

New cancer diagnoses in the U.S. remained below the pre-pandemic period over the winter despite evidence cases were missed earlier in 2020, according to an analysis of data from Quest Diagnostics.