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Although it is crucial to identify tick-borne diseases, including Lyme, early, many tests can be inaccurate or difficult to interpret. Chromacode Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., is looking to help change that. The company reported the commercial launch of its first multiplex test using its High Definition Polymerase Chain Reaction (HDPCR) technology. Chromacode said the HDPCR Tick-Borne Pathogen (TBP) panel is the only multiplex PCR test that detects nine of the most common tick-borne pathogens in a single test. This past summer, Quest Diagnostics Inc. helped put that in perspective after looking at more than 6 million de-identified laboratory test results over the past seven years and determining that the disease spiked between 2016 and 2017.

Workplace drug testing was jump-started by President Reagan’s 1986 executive order mandating it for federal employees. In 1988, Congress passed The Drug-Free Workplace Act (41 U.S.C. 81). This law requires some Federal contractors and all Federal grantees to agree that they will provide drug-free workplaces as a precondition of receiving a contract or grant from a Federal agency. Over 9.5 million urine drug tests were positive in the U.S. workforce in 2015. The rates increased to 4% of workers tested in 2015 versus 3.9% the year before, per Quest Diagnostics.

On Dec 5, we issued an updated research report on Quest Diagnostics, Inc.. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #3. Over the past three months, shares of this major commercial laboratory services provider have outperformed its industry. The stock has declined 18% compared with the industry’s 19.9% fall.

he boom of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies have inspired healthcare organizations to test the capabilities of their data. Quest Diagnostics, in partnership with Humana, MultiPlan, and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and UnitedHealthcare, have launched a pilot program that applies blockchain technology to improve data quality and reduce administrative costs associated with changes to healthcare provider demographic data.

Quest Diagnostics recently announced it will contribute biomarker implementation, population health analytics and a national lab platform as a pillar supporter of One Brave Idea, the research initiative cofounded by the American Heart Association (AHA) and Verily Life Sciences with significant support from AstraZeneca. The company said it hopes to advance the work to identify coronary heart disease at the earliest transition from wellness to disease.