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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."