Media Coverage

On Monday, scientists reported that blood pressure measurements of nearly a half-million adults showed a significant rise last year, compared with the previous year. A new study, by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and Quest Diagnostics, examined data from hundreds of thousands of employees and family members in wellness programs that tracked blood pressure and other health indicators, like weight.

Quest Diagnostics recently released its latest Health Trends report, Drug Misuse in America 2021: Physician Perspectives and Diagnostic Insights on the Drug Crisis and COVID-19, conducted by the Harris Poll, which reveals physicians' worries and fears about recognizing addiction and affects of the pandemic on people who use drugs.

At the beginning of the pandemic, patients nationwide canceled doctor’s visits for a range of medical issues as public health authorities recommended delaying non-urgent in-person medical care. During this time, clinical drug testing by Quest Diagnostics plummeted by 70%, while contributors to substance use disorders like job loss, economic hardship, and mental health issues soared.

Those lucky enough to be traveling to Hawaii for the holidays are required to get a pre-travel COVID-19 test prior to departure to avoid being required to quarantine upon arrival. Secaucus-based Quest Diagnostics says it can help in that effort. Quest was recently named a trusted lab partner for COVID-19 testing services by the state of Hawaii for its Trusted Testing and Travel Partners Program.

Thousands of vials arrive via couriers every day to a new Quest Diagnostics laboratory in Clifton. They flood into the Passaic County facility from doctors, medical clinics in six states and Hackensack Meridian Health facilities in New Jersey. The sheer volume of the operation speaks to the importance of the medical diagnostics field.

Three-fourths of physicians said they believe telemedicine visits limit their ability to determine whether patients are at risk for or are currently misusing prescription drugs, according to a new study. Providers are concerned that substance abuse issues are slipping through the cracks in virtual care, as patients experience more stress and mental illness, according to the 2021 Quest Diagnostics Health Trends report released in November.

With the legalization of recreational marijuana in New York earlier this year, most employers cannot penalize job applicants or employees for marijuana use off-duty. But in states across the country, with labor shortages, changing laws and evolving attitudes, fewer companies are testing for marijuana. The rate at which marijuana was being included in urine drug testing declined 5.2% in the United States between 2015 and 2020, said Barry Sample, senior director of science and technology at Quest Diagnostics, which performs more than 10 million drug tests annually.

Quest Diagnostics, a diagnostics services provider in oncology and genetics, has announced that it will provide clinical laboratory testing using the Ki-67 IHC MIB-1 pharmDx (Dako Omnis) immunohistochemistry companion diagnostic.

The New York City-based startup recently launched a new partnership with Quest Diagnostics and brought on Devon Kennard, an American football linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL), as an investor in the company.

Quest Diagnostics Inc. has completed the consolidations of its Northeast regional operations into its new, 250,000-square-foot facility at ON3 in Clifton, it announced Tuesday. The Secaucus-based diagnostic testing company said in a news release that the lab will serve more than 40 million people per year in seven states, increasing productivity and capacity. It is capable of more than 300,000 tests per day thanks to extensive automation, the company noted.

Steve Rusckowski, Chairman and CEO of Quest Diagnostics, discusses opening a highly automated diagnostic testing facility in New Jersey.

Meg Tirrell joins The Exchange with Quest Diagnostics CEO Steve Rusckowski to discuss the future of Covid testing. As the flu and cold seasons return, Rusckowski says, he expects more people will turn up to Covid testing when they present symptoms that are similar to those of Covid, the flu and the common cold.

Laboratory testing is the backbone of many clinical decisions. Laboratory stewardship helps ensure testing is used for the right patients when it is truly needed. By Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH, Senior Corporate Medical Director, Quest Diagnostics.

An interview with Steve Rusckowski, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Quest Diagnostics. In 2020 the company launched Quest for Health Equity (Q4HE), an over $100 million initiative focused on addressing inequities in health care that affect underserved populations across the U.S. Quest serves half of the hospitals and one-third of the U.S. population annually. The company provides results for nearly two million tests daily, ranging from routine testing to breakthrough genetic testing.

U.S. health regulators authorized the use of the first artificial-intelligence tool designed to help doctors diagnose prostate cancer. The tool, Paige Prostate from New York startup Paige.AI Inc., analyzes digital scans of prostate biopsy slides and compares them against data sets of cell and tissue patterns previously identified as indicators of tumors. Quest Diagnostics Inc., which operates medical testing labs across the U.S., has tested Paige Prostate at its AmeriPath Inc. pathology unit and plans to use the software across various sites as soon as October, said Kristie Dolan, general manager of Quest’s oncology franchise operation.

About half of young children who were tested for lead had detectable levels of the toxic metal in their blood, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Pediatrics on Monday. The new study is the first to examine low levels of lead in children’s blood, enabled by more sensitive technology, said Harvey Kaufman, a co-author of the study. Kaufman is also senior medical director at Quest Diagnostics Inc., which performed the testing for the study.

Last week, Quest Diagnostic DGX issued its periodical media statement on the company’s COVID-19 testing-related business performance. The company noted a dramatic increase in testing demand through July to September, as the United States is seeing a surge in the Delta variant-led cases.

Illustrating the extent of the boom, Quest Diagnostics on Thursday raised its full-year revenue outlook by hundreds of millions of dollars. The Secaucus, N.J.–based company cited "stronger than anticipated" demand for its molecular Covid tests since it released its second quarter financial results and full-year guidance on July 22.

A new study suggests that U.S. cancer diagnoses have declined because of pandemic-related upheaval. Researchers from Quest Diagnostics used records of newly diagnosed cancer patients who received testing at Quest. In the year before the pandemic hit, the monthly average of new diagnoses was 32,000. In the most recent period, November 2020 to March 2021, the monthly average was about 26,000 — suggesting thousands of people skipped screening tests or checkups in the last year.

New cancer diagnoses in the U.S. remained below the pre-pandemic period over the winter despite evidence cases were missed earlier in 2020, according to an analysis of data from Quest Diagnostics.

Quest Diagnostics, the nation’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, announced it has acquired select assets of Nationwide Laboratory Services (NLS), an independent clinical diagnostics laboratory headquartered in Boca Raton, FL with over 25 years of patient-centric service throughout the country.

The average positive rate for SARS-CoV-2, including the Delta variant, has steadily increased over the past six weeks, says a spokesperson at Quest Diagnostics. This is what fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people need to know about the dominant Delta variant.

The COVID-19 pandemic might have put a damper on testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs)—in particular, chlamydia and gonorrhea—but not on the rate of infections, found an analysis published in May. The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, concluded that stay-at-home orders early in the pandemic likely led to a 40% decrease in testing—though not necessarily in STI prevalence. “We’ve been losing the battle [against STIs] for six years, and COVID made it harder,” said Harvey W. Kaufman, M.D., senior medical director for Quest Diagnostics and an author of the study.

On this week’s Tech Nation, Moira speaks with DR. HARVEY KAUFMAN, the Senior Medical Director of Quest Diagnostics, about how the use or delay of medical tests reveals about the health status of the US.

With the pandemic pressuring testing demand, lab stewardship programs can help with decision making and actionable insights to make the right testing decisions for patients, leading to better quality outcomes. By Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH.

Local health care providers and diagnostics companies are feeling the squeeze as demand increases for Covid-19 testing amid fears of the more-contagious Delta variant. The pattern has also affected companies that manufacture and process the tests, such as Quest Diagnostics. As of this week the Secaucus, N.J.–based company has performed 44.5 million tests since the beginning of the pandemic.

If you're not sure what's causing your symptoms, you might want to start with an allergy test first. "When it comes to allergies, knowledge is power," says Jeffrey S. Dlott, MD, MS, senior medical director for Quest Diagnostics.

U.S. laboratory Quest Diagnostics Inc said on Thursday demand for COVID-19 testing had increased since the end of June as the more infectious Delta variant spreads across the country.

Quest Diagnostics CEO Steve Rusckowski told CNBC the company is seeing an increase in Covid-19 tests as the more contagious delta variant spreads across the country.

Quest Diagnostics Inc. reported Thursday second-quarter adjusted profit that more than doubled to beat expectations, as revenue also topped forecasts, as the recovery in the lab results and diagnostics company cited a faster-than-expected recovery in its base business.

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed and exacerbated the health and healthcare disparities that have long affected underserved communities. Those who suffer from chronic illnesses may have delayed or stopped testing and treatment during the pandemic. That’s why Quest Diagnostics is teaming up with former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Warrick Dunn and several Tampa Bay nonprofits to provide free health services to those 18 and older.

Almost everyone expected 2020 would be a difficult year for substance abuse. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control released the latest drug overdose death statistics showing not only the scope of the addiction crisis but the prevalence of fentanyl in illicit drug fatalities. Dr. Jeff Gudin, a senior medical adviser in drug monitoring and toxicology for Quest Diagnostics, started noticing a worrying trend of polysubstance abuse pick up in the spring of 2020 while monitoring the results of drug tests.

With the implementation of Pap tests and testing for the human papillomavirus (HPV), cervical cancer rates have significantly declined. However, in recent years, a debate has emerged about the benefit of cotesting, that is Pap plus HPV together, versus HPV primary alone, leaving patients and many clinicians confused about what is the best path to monitor their cervical health; By Damian P. Alagia, III, MD.

A study published in May found that screening for STDs in the U.S. dropped by 40 percent from the start of the pandemic in late February 2020 to April 2020. Testing rebounded in June 2020, but by then, positivity rates for chlamydia and gonorrhea had both increased from the year before.

Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Quest Diagnostics recently released corporate social responsibility reports detailing their efforts to promote access, diversity and inclusion both internally and externally among the communities they serve. "We continue to have conversations between supervisors and team members on what we need to address," said Cecilia McKenney, senior vice president and chief human resource officer, Quest Diagnostics.

Choose Healthy Life, a national initiative involving Black clergy, United Way of New York City and others, has been awarded a $9.9 million U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant to expand vaccinations. The federal funding will help establish an infrastructure to start screenings. Quest Diagnostics and its foundation has already provided funding and testing help.

With COVID-19 vaccinations lagging in Georgia, a newly formed coalition launched an initiative Tuesday to convince unvaccinated Georgians to get tested for the virus. With vaccine hesitancy remaining high not only in Georgia but across the country, ACT Against COVID is being rolled out nationwide through a partnership with Quest Diagnostics.

Rusckowski’s company, a top provider of clinical diagnostic services nationwide, received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 29, 2020 to start creating COVID-19 tests. The first tests Quest supplied came March 10, 2020. More than 15 months later, Quest has supplied about 48 million tests.

As screening rates went down for gonorrhea and chlamydia during the COVID-19 pandemic, weekly positivity rates increased, according to Quest Diagnostics’ 2020 Health Trends Study®. The results were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

GPB's Ellen Eldridge talks with Dr. Harvey Kaufman about a new study showing rates of HCV testing declined during the pandemic. Health experts are now recommending all adults get tested and, if positive for HCV, start treatment early to prevent serious liver disease and death from hepatitis C.

Screening and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) fell dramatically - even as the share of positive tests increased - during the early months of the pandemic, a new study suggests. Researchers from Penn State University and Quest Diagnostics found that testing decreased by about 60 percent for both men and women.

The coronavirus pandemic shook up the U.S. employment picture last year, but one trend persisted: a rising share of workers who test positive for marijuana. The proportion of U.S. workers who tested positive for marijuana in urine climbed higher in 2020 while the overall share of positive drug tests plateaued last year, according to Quest Diagnostics Inc.

Quest Diagnostics is working with artificial-intelligence startup Paige to try to identify new biomarkers of cancer and other diseases and develop new software products, the companies said Tuesday. Quest and Paige plan to work together to develop software products that diagnose various cancers based on the biomarkers they discover, for which the companies will seek regulatory approval.

Childhood obesity has disproportionately affected Hispanic and Black communities as a result of negative social determinants of health for years. To help address the health inequity crisis, the Social and Health Research Center (SAHRC) of San Antonio, Texas has developed an evidenced-based program using an innovative digitized curriculum designed to engage children. Quest Diagnostics is collaborating with SAHRC to bring the curriculum to schools and communities where it is most needed.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused major decreases in hepatitis C virus testing and treatment, hindering efforts to meet WHO goals for 2030, according to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “As much as we think about 2020 as the year of the pandemic, it’s also going to be the year that we're going to remember hepatitis C,” Harvey W. Kaufman, MD, senior medical director at Quest Diagnostics and head of Quest Diagnostics health trends research, told Healio.

Ginkgo Bioworks this week said it is collaborating with Quest Diagnostics to provide COVID-19 testing for grades K-12 to support in-class learning nationwide. The Boston-based firm noted that Quest can perform 300,000 COVID-19 molecular tests daily through its network of two dozen COVID-19 testing labs, while Ginkgo's Concentric by Ginkgo platform allows schools to sign up for testing, secure data management, order supplies, integrate follow-up testing regimes, and provide support services.

While people might be able to use the terms interchangeably in day-to-day convos, there actually are differences between the terms "disease" and "infection." Technically, a disease is considered an advanced form of an infection, Damian "Pat" Alagia, MD, ob-gyn and the senior medical director for advanced diagnostics and women's health at Quest Diagnostics, tells Health.

Quest Diagnostics has extended its QuestDirect COVID-19 Testing Program to small businesses. The program, which was designed to help small businesses foster safer environments for their employees and customers using insights from easy, fast and convenient COVID-19 molecular diagnostic and/or antibody testing services, is now available for wider use.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, workers at Quest Diagnostics are sharing what it's been like working on the front lines. Quest is a leader in diagnostic testing throughout the nation and has played a critical role during the pandemic.

Preventive tests fell sharply in the early weeks of the pandemic. Although they've started to rebound, many patients remain undiagnosed or face waits for office visits. To combat this, several insurers sent at-home colon cancer screenings kits to patients who were due for their exam. Last month, Quest Diagnostics rolled out a similar type of at-home screening. The company made its first bet in consumer-directed testing long before the start of the pandemic, when it launched an at-home STD test in 2019.