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Autoimmune diagnostics company Augurex Life Sciences said Friday that it has entered a nonexclusive agreement with Quest Diagnostics under which Quest will validate and offer in the United States a laboratory-developed test based on Augurex's 14-3-3eta biomarker.

Quest Diagnostics and Elevance Health are broadening their partnership into four more states with the goal of making it easier for patients to access in-network laboratory services. Beginning Jan. 1, Quest's service will be available in-network in four additional states: Colorado, Georgia, Nevada and Virginia. This includes routine lab testing, advanced diagnostics and Quest's network of pathologists, according to an announcement.

Lab operator Quest Diagnostics said on Wednesday it will launch a test for H5N1 bird flu at the end of October after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave it contracts to support testing for two emerging infectious diseases, including the Oropouche virus. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: The spread of bird flu among dairy herds and infections of 27 people this year have alarmed some public health experts.

Laboratory operator Quest Diagnostics beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit and revenue on Tuesday, helped by robust demand for its diagnostic tests. Demand for diagnostic checkups has grown in recent quarters as more people, especially older adults, caught up on surgeries deferred during the pandemic.

Quest Diagnostics has launched a self-collection option for testing for vaginitis and similar genital tract infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis and Mycoplasma genitalium. The test uses Hologic's FDA-cleared Aptima Multi-test swab for patient-collected vaginal specimens and can be used by patients to self-collect specimens in Quest patient service centers or in traditional clinical settings like a doctor's office.

Quest Diagnostics has completed its purchase of select laboratory assets from Columbus-based OhioHealth. The two parties signed an agreement for the assets in early July, with financial terms from the transaction not shared. The purchase aims to expand access to cost-effective laboratory services in Ohio.

Quest Diagnostics has announced seven acquisitions this year, including its recent purchase of select lab assets from Minneapolis-based Allina Health. Slated to close later this year are deals with OhioHealth in Columbus and University Hospitals in Cleveland. "In order to grow our business, we want to be able to do more work with hospitals that are doing outpatient or outreach lab tests ordered by independent physicians outside of their facility,” said Jim Davis, president and CEO of Quest Diagnostics.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition where the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or doesn’t use it effectively, causing high blood sugar levels. Insulin is crucial for helping the body convert glucose into energy. When insulin doesn’t work properly, glucose accumulates in the bloodstream, leading to increased blood sugar. Over time, this can result in serious complications such as organ damage and a higher risk of heart attack or stroke. “Diabetes can affect every organ system,” says Sanjay Dixit, MD, medical director of cardiometabolic endocrine and wellness clinical solutions at Quest Diagnostics. “Early detection and management of type 2 diabetes is crucial.”

Quest Diagnostics on Monday completed its acquisition of select lab assets of Allina Health in a deal that builds on the industry trend of independent companies taking over the outpatient lab operations of health systems.

Quest Diagnostics and Sentara Health Plans said Wednesday that they have entered into a multi-year strategic collaboration. Under the agreement, Quest will, at the beginning of 2025, become the exclusive independent national laboratory provider of clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology services for Sentara members in Florida and Virginia.

Adherence to guideline-based laboratory testing and treatment of chlamydia and gonorrhea in pregnant women has been found to be suboptimal in the United States, indicating the potential for negative effects on newborn and maternal health, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Lower Genital Tract Disease. Researchers from Quest Diagnostics and the University of Alabama sought to evaluate adherence to national recommendations for chlamydia and gonorrhea testing during pregnancy. This evaluation also included tests for persistence/potential reinfection at time of delivery and cure/clearance.

A critical technique in clinical laboratory testing, mass spectrometry (MS) involves, at its core, examining a mass of molecules. Darren Weber, Associate Scientific Director in the R&D Mass Spectrometry department at Quest Diagnostics-Nichols Institute in San Juan Capistrano, explains mass spectrometry’s place in the clinical lab.

Two blood tests you probably haven’t heard of might predict your risk of heart disease better than standard tests do. The first measures a protein called apolipoprotein B, or apoB for short, that contributes to artery-blocking plaque. The other test, for lipoprotein(a), measures a type of bad cholesterol. A growing number of specialists and primary care doctors say these tests can help give you a more precise and earlier indication of possible heart problems than more common tests for things like LDL, the best-known bad cholesterol marker. Up to 20% of patients with normal LDL cholesterol levels will have high levels of apoB, says Dr. Marc Penn, a cardiologist and a medical director at laboratory testing company Quest Diagnostics.

Coming years could see a shift in clinical laboratory operations as developments in robotics and AI further streamline workflows and bring automation to new parts of the lab. In particular, labs and vendors are working to deploy "trackless" robotics and automation systems to supplement or replace traditional track-based total lab automation (TLA) systems, further reducing the human involvement required for lab workflows and in some laboratories eliminating it entirely. Quest is also moving toward a trackless automation strategy, said Aldana, noting that the company began seriously pursuing this approach this year using both equipment from outside vendors as well as systems developed internally. He said that while the effort is still in the early stages, the company aims to quickly roll out trackless automation tools across its labs.

Quest Diagnostics raised its 2024 profit and revenue forecasts on Tuesday, banking on robust demand for its health tests. Demand for diagnostic tests has grown in recent quarters as more people, especially older adults, caught up on surgeries deferred during the pandemic. "This performance is due to growth of new physician and hospital customers, more favorable test mix that includes greater adoption of advanced diagnostics," Quest CEO Jim Davis said.

Here’s what experts say your AMH level can and can’t tell you about your fertility. “An AMH test could be the first step. Anything that initiates discussions between you and your spouse or your significant other and your health care professional I think is incredibly valuable,” says Damian Alagia, MD, Senior Medical Director for Advanced Diagnostics and Women’s Health at Quest Diagnostics on behalf of questhealth.com.

OhioHealth, based in Columbus, signed an agreement to sell certain assets of its outreach laboratory services business to Quest Diagnostics. The parties expect the transaction to close in the third quarter of the year, pending regulatory approval. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Quest Diagnostics said on Wednesday it would acquire Canada-based LifeLabs from pension plan owner OMERS for about C$1.35 billion, or about $985 million, including net debt. LifeLabs, which provides community laboratory tests, would retain its brand, Canadian headquarters and management after the acquisition is closed. The U.S. laboratory operator will acquire 100% of the equity of LifeLabs and expects to fund the acquisition through cash on hand and debt. Quest expects the deal to generate roughly $710 million in annual revenues.

Quest Diagnostics plans to acquire Allina Health's laboratory assets at most of its ambulatory clinic sites. The company and the Minneapolis-based health system have signed an definitive agreement and expect the transaction to close this fall, pending regulatory approvals. Financial terms were not disclosed.

If it feels like you’ve been hearing more about testosterone lately, you’re not wrong. However, the question of whether or not you should get your own testosterone checked isn’t so straightforward. To put it simply, if you’re not experiencing persistent symptoms associated with low testosterone, you have no reason to get your levels checked—regardless of what they might be. “If you're otherwise feeling well, I really don't advocate just going on a fishing expedition,” says Sanjay B. Dixit, MD, medical director of cardiometabolic endocrine and wellness clinical solutions at Quest Diagnostics. “That's actually one of the key points in the Endocrine Society’s guidelines from 2018, that they do not recommend testing in otherwise asymptomatic men.”

Despite the national hepatitis C elimination goals for 2030 to achieve at least 80% of persons with hepatitis C to achieve viral clearance, the goals across states is consistently falling under. In fact, analysis of data collected during 2013–2022 from a national laboratory found that HCV clearance or cure proportions among persons with virus by state was between 10% to 51%.1This data was published in the Centers for Disease Control’ and Prevention's (CDC) MMWR late last week. The investigators collected 10 years of data from January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2022 utilizing information from the national laboratory company, Quest Diagnostics. They analyzed patients from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

A blood test could help reduce costs for health plans by reliably identifying patients who might be able to safely forgo chemotherapy after surgery for stage II colorectal cancer, according to a study published in JAMA Health Forum, a member of the JAMA Network. Researchers from Haystack Oncology, a Quest Diagnostics company and developer of the Haystack MRD tumor-informed ctDNA MRD technology, City of Hope and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research conducted the study. In June 2022, a randomized clinical trial (DYNAMIC) demonstrated that a tumor-informed ctDNA MRD test performed on patients with stage II colorectal cancer reduced the application of adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) by nearly half (15% vs. 28%) without compromising recurrence-free survival.

Workers are cheating on drug tests at the highest rate in more than 30 years, according to one of the U.S.’s largest drug-testing labs. The increase in tampered tests came from samples collected in 2023. About 31,000 drug screens out of 5.5 million showed signs of cheating, according to Quest Diagnostics. “Some American workers are going to great lengths to attempt to subvert the drug-testing process,” said Dr. Suhash Harwani, senior director of science for workforce health solutions at Quest. The percentage of urine samples that came back positive for drugs among the U.S. workforce remained steady at a two-decade high for the third year in a row. But the substantial rise of tampering, as well as the patchwork of new marijuana laws across the U.S., have intensified challenges for employers seeking to keep drugs out of the workplace.

Quest Diagnostics is building out its artificial intelligence-powered cancer pathology offerings through a multi-layered deal with PathAI—acquiring some assets, licensing out others. The testing giant will be buying out PathAI’s Memphis, Tennessee-based diagnostics laboratory, with plans to turn it into its own AI and digital R&D solutions center to help support its current AmeriPath and Dermpath Diagnostics pathology businesses.

Quest Diagnostics suggested Tuesday that laboratory industry staffing shortages could redound to its benefit as hospital labs are forced to either scale back or sell off their lab operations. On a conference call following the release of the company's Q1 2024 earnings results, Quest Chairman, President, and CEO Jim Davis observed that the company has seen particular strength in hospital reference testing as that portion of its business continued to grow at a faster rate than it had prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that this trend was driven in part by the lab business's much discussed workforce crunch, noting that hospitals "face persistent challenges with staffing certain roles in specialized fields like histology, microbiology, and cytotechnology."

A blood test that analyzes levels of amyloid proteins by highly sensitive mass spectrometry could help physicians establish that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is likely not the cause of patients’ mild cognitive impairment, finds a new study published in Frontiers in Neurology by researchers from Quest Diagnostics, the University of Florida and Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach.

Precision medicine in rheumatoid arthritis expanded in a small but key measure late last year, when Quest Diagnostics and Scipher Medicine announced a partnership to provide RNA extraction and sequencing services for the latter’s PrismRA test.

Quest Diagnostics Health Trends topics are selected with expectations that reports may reveal important new novel public health insights. We collaborate with national academic experts and leaders in public health on many of our studies. To find impactful findings, this external input helps shape the objectives and study designs. Many of our studies have been highlighted by premier news outlets, nationally and regionally, and have been integrated into professional guidelines.

Quest Diagnostics on Tuesday announced a new tool available to dermatologists for making treatment decisions for patients with melanoma. The gene expression test, MelaNodal Predict, is based on technology developed by the oncology biotechnology company SkylineDx and researchers at Mayo Clinic.

Years of exposure to nonstick cookware, fast-food packaging, fire-fighting gear and water-resistant household products have resulted in increased levels of PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals," in practically every American's bloodstream. Quest Diagnostics announced Monday the first "consumer-initiated, physician-ordered blood-draw test for PFAS chemicals." The test, which you order online, will be available from most of Quest's approximately 2,100 diagnostic centers in the country and will include (if desired) a separate telephone consultation with a licensed physician to go over the results and ways to reduce the exposure risk.

Suhash Harwani, Ph.D, Senior Director of Science & Technology for Employer Solutions at Quest Diagnostics, shares drug positivity and testing options that employers should know about.

On Jan. 31, Fortune released its World's Most Admired Companies list, which included healthcare companies. The list, a partnership between Fortune and global management consulting firm Korn Ferry, follows an examination of about 1,500 candidates: the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue, along with non-U.S. companies in Fortune's Global 500 database that have revenues of $10 billion or more.

Just as users around the world are surely strapping on new Fitbits with an aim of tackling health-focused New Year’s resolutions, so too is Fitbit itself kicking off 2024 with its sights set on a new goal. The Google-owned fitness tracker maker is teaming up with Quest Diagnostics, according to a Wednesday release, to study how the combination of the two companies’ products could potentially help improve metabolic health, which is linked to conditions like diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Quest Diagnostics has acquired select assets of outreach laboratory services in Pennsylvania and Ohio from Steward Health Care System, a large, private, and fully-integrated for-profit system based in Dallas. In addition, subject to transfer of the laboratory license, Quest has also acquired certain assets from the laboratory business serving Hawthorn Medical Associates in Dartmouth, MA.

Haystack Oncology said on Monday that it has struck a deal to investigate the use of its minimal residual disease (MRD) testing technology in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in collaboration with research organization Alliance Foundation Trials (AFT).

Quest Diagnostics and Scipher Medicine announced a collaboration designed to expand patient access to diagnostic services for rheumatoid arthritis. Under a multiyear collaboration, Quest will provide RNA extraction and next-generation sequencing services for Scipher’s PrismRA test, a blood-based molecular signature response classifier aimed at predicting a patient’s response to TNF inhibitor therapy.

Quest Diagnostics unveiled its new confirmatory testing service for novel psychoactive substances (NPS). The new panel, which tests for 88 compounds, covers a broad array of drug classes, such as designer opioids, designer benzodiazepines, designer stimulants, fentanyl analogs, synthetic cannabinoids, and other illicit additives.

On this episode I talked to Michael Racke, MD Medical Director of Neurology at Quest Diagnostics. Michael discusses promising advancements in our understanding and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. He explains how imaging and biomarkers have allowed earlier and more accurate diagnosis, moving from just a clinical picture to actually visualizing amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain.

Quest Diagnostics said Thursday that its Haystack Oncology subsidiary has entered a collaboration agreement with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey for a study of early-stage triple-negative breast cancer patients. Researchers will use Haystack's MRD technology to help evaluate therapeutic response and collect molecular information on individuals undergoing treatment in the adjuvant setting with liposomal doxorubicin and carboplatin.

Secaucus-based Quest Diagnostics on Thursday said it was awarded a contract by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designed to assess the burden of hepatitis C virus in the U.S. The agreement marks a new phase of a decadelong collaboration between Quest and the CDC to improve hepatitis public health research based on insights from laboratory data.

Four local students from two academic institutions have been selected to participate in the American Heart Association’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Scholars program, which is designed to help address racial disparity among medical students and physicians. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, only eight percent of medical students and five percent of physicians are Black and African American. The program is funded by a grant provided by the Quest Diagnostics Foundation, which also supports the American Heart Association’s Hispanic Serving Institutes (HSI) Scholars Program.

Scipher Medicine and Quest Diagnostics have announced a multiyear collaboration to expand access to diagnostic services for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Quest Diagnostics is teaming up with a Spain-based biotech to bring an advanced colorectal cancer screening blood test to the U.S. Under the new partnership, the Secaucus-headquartered testing provider will work with UDX to develop and seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration premarket approval for a novel “liquid biopsy” blood test to screen for colorectal cancer, the third leading cause of cancer death in the country, according to a Nov. 20 announcement.

For its third annual look-ahead, CLP recently asked a wide range of clinical laboratory experts to look into their professional crystal balls and make their predictions for 2024.

In honor of National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, held November 2023, Michael K. Racke, MD, medical director of neurology at Quest Diagnostics, delved into some commonly-believed myths about Alzheimer disease and provided his insight on the scientific explanations for these assumptions.

Quest Diagnostics recently launched Quest Mobile™, which the Secaucus-based health care company says will make it easier and more convenient for patients to have a specimen collected for lab testing nationwide. Patients can request an appointment for at-home specimen collection with a trained Quest Mobile phlebotomist for a broad range of laboratory tests in the comfort of their home.

Michael McPhaul, MD, is senior medical director of endocrinology at Quest Diagnostics and editor of the Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports. His work at Quest Diagnostics focuses on the development of new tests for biomarkers of metabolic health to improve prevention, early diagnosis, and monitoring for patients with cardiometabolic health conditions. Here, he discusses advances in insulin resistance testing.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and affecting about 6 million people in the United States. A simple blood test is providing a new way for doctors to detect the potential risk of Alzheimer's disease in its early stages. Here to talk about this groundbreaking new approach is a board-certified neurologist and medical director of neurology at Quest Diagnostics.

Diagnostics firm Diadem said Wednesday that it has licensed exclusive US rights to its AlzoSure Predict Alzheimer's blood test to Quest Diagnostics. Under the agreement, Quest can develop, validate, and market the assay, which is intended to identify individuals likely to progress to Alzheimer's disease, as a laboratory-developed test in the US. AlzoSure Predict measures a variant of the p53 protein that has been linked to Alzheimer's disease.

Laboratory operator Quest Diagnostics on Tuesday raised its full-year sales forecast after beating third-quarter expectations for revenue and profit, buoyed by a recovery in routine testing. The company raised its full-year net sales forecast to $9.19 billion to $9.24 billion, from its previous expectations of $9.12 billion to $9.22 billion. Sales from Quest's base business, which includes a range of diagnostic tests for allergies, chronic diseases and cancer, rose 4.6% to $2.27 billion in the third quarter. That extends a rebound in routine health check-ups delayed due to pandemic-related lockdowns for diagnostic firms like Quest and eases the blow from plunging demand for COVID-19 tests.

Dialysis company Neway said Thursday that it has entered a strategic lab services arrangement with Quest Diagnostics to speed dialysis lab testing and reduce testing costs for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Under the terms of the agreement, Neway will use Quest's lab network to provide local testing services, enabling next-day results while also reducing sample transportation costs.

Self-service has seen incredible growth in recent years, and this is just the beginning. 81% of customers want more self-service options. Here are 20 of the best examples of self-service:

13. Quest Diagnostics Cuts Wait Time with Kiosks
Medical lab company Quest Diagnostics cuts wait times with interactive kiosks that patients can use to check in, upload insurance information, and make payments. The devices help patients be seen faster, allowing medical staff to spend more time working with patients and less on administrative tasks.

Stamford-based Americares is partnering with Quest Diagnostics to provide 10 clinics across the U.S. with no-cost diagnostic services for one year as a means of increasing access to care for low-income, uninsured and underinsured patients.

Rutgers and Quest Diagnostics are expanding their collaboration to further improve access to critical primary care services for uninsured patients of the university’s Health Outreach Practice Experience (H.O.P.E.) Clinic in Plainfield. Resources from the Quest Diagnostics Foundation will enable the clinic to double its capacity by providing primary care services for a second day of the week.

Quest Diagnostics has secured breakthrough device designation for its adeno-associated virus (AAV) test, AAVrh74 ELISA assay, from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The test is an enzyme-linked immunosorbent in vitro diagnostic assay intended for the semi-quantitative detection of antibodies (IgG) to AAVrh74 capsid in the serum of humans. Quest also expanded collaboration with Sarepta to develop complementary diagnostics for Sarepta's gene therapies.

Researchers from Quest Diagnostics and collaborators have found that changes in levels of the cardiovascular risk marker free myeloperoxidase (MPO) appear correlated with an individual's overall mortality risk. The finding, described in a study published last month in PLOS One, indicate that longitudinal measurement of MPO could help physicians assess patients' mortality risk and response to interventions.

Quest Diagnostics has partnered with Envision Sciences to commercially launch a novel prostate cancer biomarker test to help in identifying patients with more aggressive forms of the disease, Quest Diagnostics and the University of South Australia announced in separate news releases.1,2"Our goal for this innovative prostate biomarker test is to improve the accuracy of grading prostate cancer biopsies.

Made by New Jersey–based Quest Diagnostics, the $399 test can be purchased online by anyone age 18 and older in most US states, who then must go to a Quest clinic for a blood draw. The test measures blood levels of a protein called amyloid beta. As a person ages, amyloid beta tends to accumulate in the brain and can eventually form plaques, which are linked to Alzheimer’s disease. It’s thought that these clumps build up many years before memory loss and confusion appear.

For decades, employers have relied on workplace drug testing as a risk mitigation tool to effectively deter drug use and help prevent costly incidents. However, with cannabis legalization expanding, so is its use and acceptance. The connection between increasing cannabis availability and increased use of cannabis at work creates significant risks and costs for employers. So, why isn’t it possible to determine impairment from cannabis yet? “The main point many people fail to realize is that alcohol had decades, literally decades, of study to get to an impairment standard,” toxicology and workforce drug testing expert Barry Sample, of Quest Diagnostics, explains.

Quest Diagnostics launched on July 31 a direct-to-consumer blood test to detect abnormal levels of beta-amyloidTrusted Source, a protein involved in Alzheimer’s disease that can show up in the brain years before symptoms arise. The first-of-its-kind test, called AD-Detect, will cost $399, plus a $13 physician service fee. The technology is the same as the AD-Detect Amyloid Beta 42/40 Ratio blood test launched by the company in early 2022, which is available with a doctor’s order.

Laboratory operator Quest Diagnostics Inc beat estimates for quarterly profit on Wednesday, as people returned for regular checkups and tests that were delayed during a large part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-COVID testing at companies such as Quest and rival Labcorp was hit as people delayed routine health check-ups following pandemic-led lockdowns, but that demand has now started to normalize while COVID testing sales have fallen.

An analysis of 462 million lipid test results has shown mean total cholesterol levels exceed the target in seven of the 17 studied countries. Writing in the European Heart Journal, members of the Global Diagnostics Network (GDN) describe the evaluation of lipid test data generated by nine clinical laboratories working in 17 countries. Seth Martin, lead author of the study and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, discussed the analysis and the potential implications of its findings in a statement from Quest Diagnostics, the company that leads the GDN.

Quest Diagnostics said Thursday that women seeking to start or expand a family can now access the Proov Confirm PdG home collection kit for assessing fertility through questhealth.com. The Proov Confirm PdG test is the first and only FDA-cleared PdG (progesterone metabolite) home test kit to confirm successful ovulation. Through a collaboration between Secaucus-based Quest and Proov, the test is the first women’s health test from a third-party manufacturer available through questhealth.com.

For a decade now, the world has had highly effective medications for hepatitis C infections. In the United States, they’ve mostly been sitting on the shelf, according to a new study. A study published Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals how deep the disparities in access to hepatitis C therapies have become. Using testing data from Quest Diagnostics, researchers were able to track the fates of 1 million Americans diagnosed with hepatitis C infections in the decade since the most effective drugs were introduced. Overall, just 1 in 3 were cured over that time period.

Quest Diagnostics has finalized its previously announced acquisition of Baltimore-based Haystack Oncology, the Secaucus clinical laboratory company said June 21. Under the terms of the deal unveiled April 27, Quest said it would pay Haystack $300 million in cash at closing, net of cash acquired, and up to an additional $150 million based on future performance milestones.

The ongoing flurry of marijuana legislation, court cases and cannabis-based products makes it difficult for HR professionals to craft policies that meet their company's drug-testing needs. The significant differences in state-by-state rules, definitions and interpretations of recreational and medical marijuana products have only added to the potential confusion. People in U.S. states that legalized recreational cannabis use it 20 percent more frequently than people in other states, according to a 2022 study in the journal Addiction. Nationwide, 4.4 percent of workers failed tests that Quest Diagnostics processed in 2020, up from 3.5 percent in 2012. The rate was slightly higher in states where adults are allowed to buy recreational marijuana.

Alzheimer’s disease is devastating to both patients and their families and caregivers. And while there are better means to diagnosis Alzheimer’s today, in many cases, it is only determined after symptoms become apparent. Today, about 6 million Americans are struggling with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. That number is expected to more than double by mid-century. In a wide-ranging discussion about the disease with CLP, Michael Racke, MD, medical director of neurology for Quest Diagnostics, outlines a new test that can help spot Alzheimer’s and other dementias earlier, what that means for treatment options, and how it could help transform Alzheimer’s into a manageable condition and not a death sentence for patients.

Dr. Mark Kruzel, MD, MBA, Associate Medical Director of Oncology at Quest Diagnostics, shares how the pathology-oncology care team can work together more closely to leverage the true power of precision therapies.

As the number of cannabis-friendly states across the U.S. has grown, so, too, has the drug's usage among American workers. An annual analysis from Quest Diagnostics medical lab and testing company shows the percentage of general U.S. employees, who tested positive for cannabis in 2022 reached the highest level ever recorded by Quest, which began analyzing annual workplace drug testing data in 1988.

As legal marijuana expands in the U.S., a record share of workers is testing positive for the substance in workplace drug screening. Overall drug use among workers tested by employers generally held steady last year, according to an annual tally from Quest Diagnostics, one of the country’s largest drug-testing laboratories. In drug tests given to workers after accidents on the job, marijuana positives rose sharply last year, hitting the highest level in a quarter-century.

Quest Diagnostics announced nationwide availability of the RestoreU Dementia Panel, a risk assessment and care plan AI-powered test service created by uMETHOD Health, a health technology company specializing in precision medicine for chronic diseases, to help physicians close care gaps for patients with cognitive decline.

Thursday marks the end of the public health emergency in the United States, more than three years after it was first declared to combat the novel coronavirus by unlocking powerful tools to detect and contain the emerging threat. While it closes a chapter in history, health experts point out the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over as the virus continues to claim about 1,000 lives each week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest lab companies in the country, said labs will continue to provide COVID-19 services and tests, but “access to, fees and reimbursement for COVID-19 testing will change after the (public health emergency) expires.”

With so many different factors — genetics, lifestyle and environment — influencing a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s, many doctors are moving away from one-size-fits-all approaches and calling for more individualized treatments. It’s a concept known as precision medicine. And it’s what inspired a company called uMETHOD to create RestoreU, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to help physicians create personalized care plans for patients with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. "Dementia is what’s called a complex disease," CEO Vik Chandra, co-founder and CEO of uMETHOD Health in Cary, North Carolina, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. Through a partnership with Quest Diagnostics, uMETHOD has rolled out its AI service to physicians, who can order the service through the patient’s electronic health record. Once the physician orders the service, it triggers the exchange of extensive information between the doctor's electronic health record systems and Quest Diagnostics, Chandra explained.

Quest Diagnostics is hoping it’s found a winner in Haystack Oncology, with a $450 million bet on the cancer-focused blood test startup. The clinical testing giant plans to acquire Baltimore-based Haystack for its technology to detect minimal residual disease by catching the early signs of a solid tumor’s recurrence by sifting out small pieces of cancer DNA floating in the bloodstream.

Quest Diagnostics Inc posted first-quarter profit ahead of Wall Street estimates on Thursday as its base business helped offset a fall in COVID-19 test kits sales. Demand for routine diagnostic tests has picked up as an increasing number of people return to the healthcare system for routine care after delaying care during the pandemic.

For health plans to try to tackle the complex issue of food insecurity and its overall impact and consequences, it takes another step, but the outcomes are worth it. Let’s look at Pack Health’s Better Food for Better Health (BFBH) to demonstrate. Our food insecurity solution combines biweekly food box delivery, food security screenings and digital health coaching into an in-depth, but practical, program for those experiencing food insecurity. BFBH presents a valuable opportunity for health plans, health systems, and employers to support vulnerable populations experiencing food insecurity.

Secaucus-based Quest Diagnostics and NewYork-Presbyterian on Monday announced that Quest has completed its previously announced acquisition of select assets of the laboratory services business of NewYork-Presbyterian. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Because trust plays a big part in customers' decisions about what to buy, employees' decisions about where to work and investors decisions about whether to invest, Newsweek, in collaboration with market research partner Statista, is proud to introduce our second annual listing of the Most Trustworthy Companies in America. This year we've listed 700 U.S. companies in 23 industries according to their evaluations by U.S. customers, employees and investors.

11: Health Care & Life Sciences / Quest Diagnostics / New Jersey / Public Company

Quest Diagnostics recently unveiled a suite of advanced diagnostics and support services designed to broaden access to lab tests for transplants. Quest hopes to improve testing compliance among patients by making the testing more accessible. Its Advanced Specialized Transplant Services now include customized educational resources for patients, expedited transport and processing of tests and 5,000 mobile phlebotomists for at-home specimen collection.

Times like these demonstrate the importance of the health care industry to New Jersey’s economy. The sector’s impact has been well documented in dollar terms over the years and officials at levels profess to recognize the critical role health care companies play – not only in providing care but also keeping the state in business. This year’s Health Care Power 50 list reflects another side of the economic story.

Quest Diagnostics on Wednesday announced support for a new program with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street.” The resources launched aim to address health and well-being inequities among young children, particularly in low-income, rural and marginalized communities.

Quest Diagnostics has introduced two Post-COVID-19 panels for consumers that offer information about lingering health issues associated with previous COVID-19 virus infections.

Doctors and drug companies are also warming to the medical possibilities of ceramides. Later this year, lab testing giant Quest Diagnostics will start to offer the analysis, potentially making it available to many more patients.

Diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms develop may soon be as simple as getting a blood test. New blood tests for certain biomarkers show promise, providing physicians an alternative to expensive scans or invasive spinal taps to make a diagnosis. Quest AD-Detect: Introduced by Quest Diagnostics, this blood test also measures beta-amyloid proteins in your blood to determine your risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. It does not determine if you have any genetic biomarkers for the disease. The test became available in May 2022, with a cost of $500. There is limited coverage by some health plans.

Although automation and artificial intelligence have long been recognized as a way to improve operational efficiency in clinical laboratories, an industry-wide staffing shortage is creating an added motivation to incorporate more technology. At Secaucus-based Quest Diagnostics, it’s just one of many market forces that is shaping the company’s post-pandemic business strategy.

Medical testing center operator Quest Diagnostics Inc. said that it has begun using a highly automated microbiology lab system that leverages AI to analyze samples. CEO Jim Davis mentioned the platform in the company’s earnings call when he was talking about ways in which it’s trying to counter “significant inflation and wage pressures.”

Do you know your blood type? There’s a good chance that you don’t. More Americans know their horoscope sign (66 percent) than their blood type (51 percent), according to a survey published this year by laboratory company Quest.

Quest Diagnostics, a nationwide medical testing company, will acquire some lab services from New York-Presbyterian in the coming months, the organizations announced Tuesday. The deal will allow physicians affiliated with New York-Presbyterian who work outside of the hospital to send diagnostics for processing to Quest’s laboratory in Clifton, New Jersey. The organizations said they expect to complete the deal in the second quarter of this year, pending regulatory approvals. This acquisition will not affect all testing services. New York-Presbyterian will keep anatomical pathology testing in house along with other diagnostics that require a quick turnaround time, the organizations said.

While tech companies Apple, Amazon and Microsoft took top spots on the 2023 "World's Most Admired Companies" list released by Fortune on Feb. 1, healthcare-related companies were also included. The list, a partnership between Fortune and global management consulting firm Korn Ferry, is based on an analysis of 645 companies in 27 countries. 34 healthcare companies are among the Most Admired Companies in their industries.

EJ Hikel from Northern Light Health and Brandy Dow from Quest Diagnostics talk about blood donation.

Ten years ago, drug overdoses claimed nearly 42,000 lives annually in the United States. By the end of 2021, that number climbed to nearly 108,000. Today, the drug crisis shows no signs of abating, and remains largely fueled by increased access to illicit drugs as well as barriers to healthcare access exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the last decade, Quest Diagnostics, through its Health Trends program, has examined insights gleaned from results of our large volume of clinical drug tests, with a goal of empowering better patient care, population health management and informing public health policy.

Anyone who has had medical tests performed likely knows about Quest Diagnostics. The Secaucus-based company is perhaps the most prominent testing company in the world. For this edition of NJBIZ Conversations, Wendi Mader – Quest’s vice president of the commercial employer channel – talks about what it was like to play that role and discusses how she and her staff continue to help businesses identify and mitigate health risks faced by their employees.

Pack Health, a Quest Diagnostics company, has unveiled plans to nearly double the space of its headquarters in Birmingham and add at least 200 full-time employee positions. The project is based on economic development incentives from the state of Alabama in recognition of the public benefits accruing from the expansion of Pack Health's landmark Birmingham facility.

In a wide-ranging presentation at the 41st Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Quest Diagnostics' new President and CEO Jim Davis addressed multiple segments of the business, including Quest's hospital and physician laboratory market, advanced diagnostics, and the growing consumer-initiated testing (CIT) efforts.

Quest Diagnostics workforce drug testing data showed that nearly one in 10 (9.7%) post-accident drug tests was positive for a drug — underscoring the considerable role drug use plays in workforce accidents. The most troubling aspect of the Quest data was the finding that positivity for marijuana in 2021 was 63% higher in post-accident testing than pre-employment testing, suggesting some individuals who pass pre-employment screens use the drug post-hire.

There’s a trio of viruses spreading in the U.S. — COVID-19, the flu and RSV — and some in the medical world are calling it a “tripledemic.” If you’re feeling sick, it can be tough to differentiate among COVID-19, the flu and RSV because they share similar symptoms and can also look like the common cold. With COVID-19 and the flu, the CDC reports that “you cannot tell the difference between” the pair based on symptoms. Luckily, there is a test that can detect whether you have COVID-19, the flu and even RSV that you can get through a health care provider. Options include a test made by Labcorp and another created by Quest Diagnostics.

There’s no simple way to tell who has Alzheimer’s disease, but with a blockbuster treatment for millions of Americans on the horizon, blood-test makers are gearing up to change this. Even doctors who were initially skeptical about blood tests for the condition are gaining confidence that products from Quest Diagnostics Inc., Quanterix Corp. and C2N Diagnostics can help distinguish which patients may qualify for treatment with the experimental drug lecanemab, expected to be approved next year.

Flu season continues to dominate national headlines as cases rise and hospitals are overcrowded. As a result of a spike in influenza cases, hospitals are feeling the pressure. "The strain that this is putting on our healthcare system is certainly a concern," Dr. Hema Kapoor, Infectious Diseases and Immunology with Quest Diagnostics tells us. "The overlap that we're seeing with other viruses has also put additional stress on the system. Pediatric hospitals have been overwhelmed by patients with RSV, and while the CDC noted it appears transmission was slowing in areas of the country, we've been seeing an increase in hospitalizations due to flu and COVID-19."

Quest Diagnostics said Thursday that it has formed a strategic laboratory collaboration with Maine healthcare system Northern Light Health. Under the agreement, Quest will acquire select assets of Northern Light's outreach laboratory business, named Northern Light Laboratory, in an all-cash transaction and will provide management services for nine of the system's hospital labs, as well as its cancer center laboratory at Northern Light Cancer Care in Brewer, Maine.

Quest Diagnostics on Thursday announced a group purchasing agreement for its laboratory stewardship solution with Premier, a healthcare company uniting an alliance of hospitals, health systems, and providers.