Media Coverage

The most recent short interest data has been released for the 01/31/2019 settlement date, and we here at Dividend Channel like to sift through this fresh data and order the underlying components of the S&P 500 by "days to cover." There are a number of ways to look at short data, for example the total number of shares short; but one metric that we find particularly useful is the "days to cover" metric because it considers both the total shares short and the average daily volume of shares typically traded.

Quest Diagnostics, the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of the clinical laboratory services business of Boyce & Bynum Pathology Laboratories (BBPL), a leading provider of diagnostic and clinical laboratory services in the Midwest.

A diagnostic test used by Mayo Clinic to detect a rare neurological disease involves standard techniques and is not subject to patent law, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The appellate court's decision to uphold a district court ruling in the patent dispute effectively denied claims by Quest Diagnostics' Athena Diagnostics division that it was owed royalties for the testing. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with Mayo in a 2-1 decision.

Back in 2017, Microsoft first announced the new AI-powered research project under Healthcare NExT initiative that enables healthcare providers to easily create intelligent and compliant healthcare virtual assistants and chatbots. Last year, Microsoft announced the preview of Healthcare Bot service on Azure Marketplace that enabled healthcare organizations to build and deploy, AI-powered virtual health assistants and chatbots. Microsoft today announced the general availability of the service. Virtual health assistants built using this service can be used for enhancing processes, self-service support, and cost reduction efforts. Quest Diagnostics in Cary, NC recently built a bot using the Microsoft Healthcare Bot service. This bot helps Quest Diagnostics' patients in finding testing locations, schedule appointments and get answers to non-medical questions such as whether to fast before a blood test or when to expect results.

Several large health insurance companies, including Aetna, Anthem, and Healthcare Service Corporation, have announced a collaboration with PNC Bank and IBM to utilize blockchain technology to “improve transparency and interoperability in the health care industry” and “address a range of industry challenges, including promoting efficient claims and payment processing, to enable secure and frictionless healthcare information exchanges, and to maintain current and accurate provider directories.” The Synaptic Health Alliance launched in April 2018 with Humana, MultiPlan, Quest Diagnostics, UnitedHealthcare and Optum.