Media Coverage

Earlier this year, five prominent healthcare organizations—Humana, MultiPlan, Quest Diagnostics, and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and UnitedHealthcare—announced they would be launching a blockchain-based pilot program with the aim to improve healthcare data quality and reduce administrative costs.

An emerging bacterial threat, mycoplasma genitalium, that can be passed through sex is making some headlines across the pond as the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV recently drafted guidance aimed at better detecting and treating it. Commercial labs such as Quest Diagnostics offer a test for this STD.

The threat of Lyme disease has spread to all 50 states. Quest Diagnostics analyzed 6 million blood samples and found the tick-borne disease is now in 100 percent of the country. The most cases were in Pennsylvania, but the disease is also becoming more common in places like Florida and California.

The proportion of workplace drug tests detecting the use of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine is up sharply, from 3.2 percent in 2012 to 4.2 percent, according to Quest Diagnostics. With the Trump economy producing more jobs than applicants, some companies are simply dropping pot from their routine pre-employment drug screening. “Employers are saying, ‘We have a thin labor pool,’” employment lawyer James Reidy tells the Associated Press. “So are we going to test and exclude a whole group of people?”

Lyme disease is now in all 50 states and the number of cases is rising, according to a report from clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics. The tick-borne illness, historically found mostly in the Northeast, is now growing rapidly in California and Florida, where it was not usually found in the past, according to a report from clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics.

The New York Times reported yesterday that a new-to-the-United-States tick species has been identified in seven states in recent months, after an infestation was first discovered last summer in New Jersey. The tick is native to Asia, where it is known to carry a dangerous virus that kills 15% of the people it bites. But it has spread in recent years—to Australia, New Zealand, several Pacific islands, and now to America.

This really bites and sucks. The tick population continues to grow, Lyme Disease continues to spread, and now according to a recently released analysis from Quest Diagnostics Lyme Disease can be found in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.

If you thought you were safe from Lyme disease because you don’t live in New England, where the tick-borne illness first appeared, think again. Now, 100 percent of the country — all 50 states plus the District — has residents who have tested positive for Lyme, a bacterial infection that can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including joint aches, fatigue, facial palsy and neck stiffness.

Every state in the nation reported residents who tested positive for Lyme disease, according to the most recent Quest Diagnostics study released last week. No longer is the tick-borne disease simply an issue for people living in New England, where it first appeared and is still prevalent.

A new report has found that the tick-borne illness Lyme disease has been detected in all 50 states, and cases continue to rise. The report from Quest Diagnostics is based on more than six million blood tests taken over the last seven years, CBS New York reports. The New Jersey-based clinical laboratory says cases of Lyme disease have exploded in areas like California and Florida, where it was not commonly seen in the past. The company believe ticks are finding it easier to survive in new regions and spreading diseases to unsuspecting residents.

While Lyme disease once was thought to be as reliably of New England as lockjaw and lobster rolls, the tick-borne ailment that hits both young children and older adults especially hard is now officially everywhere, at least according to a new study from lab giant Quest Diagnostics.

Participants in the BFOR study sign up for genetic testing at no cost by logging on to the website (www.BFORStudy.com) and answering a series of questions to determine eligibility. Educational videos explain the specifics of the test, the purpose of genetic testing and its importance. In all, the registration process takes no more than an hour. The site also allows patients to schedule genetic-testing appointments at the offices of Quest Diagnostics, which has several locations in each of the four cities. They can opt to have results sent to a personal physician or a health-care provider on the BFOR study team.

A new study by Quest Diagnostics has ranked Georgia third in the nation for the most increases in Lyme disease between 2015 and 2017.

here's been a sharp spike in Lyme disease cases in the United States, and the tick-borne illness has now spread to all 50 states, a new report shows. "Lyme disease is a bigger risk to more people in the United States than ever before," said Dr. Harvey Kaufman, senior medical director for Quest Diagnostics, which conducted the study.

Blockchain is here to stay. Here is what we need to do to make it better.

Last month’s Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2018 heralded many announcements, including the mixed reception around Phase II trials results from Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug BAN2401. Like many treatments in AD, it addressed build up of amyloid plaques in the brain. However, many drug failures in that area, as well as Pfizer’s exodus from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s research early this year, has led to investors and scientists to reevaluate the plaque theory. Edward I. Ginns, MD, PhD, medical director, neurology, for Quest Diagnostics, said, “When we see patients at the point of clinical identification, the brain is pretty much out of resources. It’s unlikely that neurons that are dead or non-functional will be treated at that late stage.” To that end, Quest Diagnostics wanted to identify patients with cognition problems earlier. They developed CogniSense, a cognition test that is available as an app for the iPad and given in the primary care doctor’s office.

Opioid use—and abuse—among construction workers has become the industry’s silent crisis. It frequently begins with pain, typically from jobsite-related injuries, including falls, or from tasks involving repetitive motion. Excessive exposure to vibration—in addition to bending, twisting and awkward postures—inflicts particularly hard wear and tear on backs, knees, shoulders and other joints.

llinois workers in retail, health care and administrative services and waste management were most likely to fail a drug test in 2017, according to data from a national testing company. [CR-LF]Quest Diagnostics, headquartered in Secaucus, N.J., tested more than 10 million urine samples nationally for marijuana, opiates, cocaine and other drugs. About 5 percent of Illinois retail workers tested positive for drugs, followed by 4.8 percent of workers in health care and social assistance, and 4.3 percent in administrative services and waste management.

Quest Diagnostics, the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, today unveiled the newest version of its Quanum Enterprise Content Management Solution, featuring Smart Capture® from Ephesoft to increase document value through automated classification and data extraction. In connection with the new product version and to better align its technology portfolio under one brand, Quest is migrating the ChartMaxx® brand into the Quanum™ Solutions portfolio as Quanum Enterprise Content Solutions. Quest had previously marketed its enterprise-content management solutions under the ChartMaxx brand name.

In 2017, positive tests for illicit drugs in the American workforce remained at their highest level in more than a decade, according to the annual Drug Testing Index from lab services provider Quest Diagnostics.

A screening program for dementia developed by Secaucus-based Quest Diagnostics and the University of California-San Francisco’s Memory and Aging Center will be used by New York-based Primary PartnerCare ACO Independent Practice Association in a pilot project.

Losing exclusive contracts might normally seem like bad news, but shares of Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp surged on Friday after the rival lab services firms announced new non-exclusive agreements with health insurers.

UnitedHealthcare and Quest Diagnostics have agreed to a value-based care arrangement, saying they have created a “long-term strategic partnership” designed to reduce costs and provide better care. In addition, Quest will be a national in-network lab provider for all UnitedHealthcare plan participants beginning January 1, 2019.