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Though countless diagnostic developers struck it rich at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of those that were relatively new to the testmaking game are now struggling to make up for lost sales as the spread of the virus slows down. Not so for established testing giants like Quest Diagnostics, which has seen its base business rebound in direct relation to dropping COVID-related earnings.

Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Thursday: Tesla Inc., down $14.76 to $207.28. The electric vehicle maker warned it could miss its target of 50% annual growth in deliveries this year. Quest Diagnostics Inc., up $8 to $134.66. The medical laboratory chain’s third-quarter earnings and revenue beat analysts’ forecasts.

Decode Health has announced a new phase of its collaboration with Quest Diagnostics. In earlier phases of the collaboration, the two parties developed RNA (transcriptome) sequencing capabilities.

Recent research shows more messaging about cancer screening is needed. This is because diagnoses of prostate and breast cancer remain significantly below pre-pandemic levels. While this may sound like good news, it's not. The lower figures are due to a reverberating trend stemming from the pandemic. Based on data from 1.1 million patients, a Quest Diagnostics' analysis found cancer diagnoses plummeted nearly 30% in the first months of the pandemic in 2020, when much of society and healthcare were shuttered.

Quest Diagnostics said it recently joined forces with a free H.O.P.E. Clinic in Plainfield operated by Rutgers University to help reduce health disparities in a community with a high percentage of uninsured adults by providing free lab services. Not only is this helping people with chronic conditions receive the treatments they need, but it also is helping to keep health care costs down by giving people an alternative to emergency departments.

Recent research suggests a mainstay of HR strategy—benefits, particularly those related to employee healthcare—is underrecognized for its potential to influence recruitment and retention. According to the 2022 Health at Work report from Quest Diagnostics, workers at companies with 1,000 or more employees say the quality of a company’s benefits for physical and mental health largely defines its attractiveness as an employer of choice. When asked to cite the top two factors for attracting and retaining workers, half (50%) cited comprehensive health insurance, making it the highest rated factor. And this makes sense given how expensive, complex and critical healthcare is for employees in the U.S.

Alarming: A new study from Quest Diagnostics has found that cancer diagnosis dropped 11.2% below pre-pandemic levels between April 2021 and March 2022, and breast cancer diagnosis fell even further, by 17%. This suggests that women are still delaying mammograms, meaning thousands could be living with undiagnosed breast cancer. Here's when you should get your first mammogram.

Faced with a shortfall in applicants, employers across the U.S. are balancing pressure to ease up on testing for a legal drug with concerns that this could impact safety and raise issues of liability. The challenge of balancing workplace safety and the growing prevalence — and legalization — of some types of drugs is especially acute for manufacturers and others who use dangerous equipment. Data from Quest Diagnostics, which handles testing for companies, shows a steady increase in positivity rates for marijuana tests over the past decade — coinciding with the wave of legalization. In 2012, only 1.9% of workers not subject to federally mandated drug testing requirements failed a pre-employment screening. Last year, that had grown to 4.1%. The jump in positive tests after accidents grew even more during that period, up from 2.4% to 6.7%.

The first EUA for a proprietary monkeypox test was issued to Quest Diagnostics, Secaucus, NJ, on Sept. 7, 2022. “It’s an important step in identifying, treating, and, hopefully, eradicating monkeypox as we go forward,” says Damian “Pat” Alagia III, MD, MS, MBA, FACS, FACOG, chief clinical officer for health systems as well as the senior medical director for advanced diagnostics and women’s health for Quest Diagnostics. “About the time we got the EUA, we started to see a flattening of the curve of the trajectory of the disease, primarily because, concurrent with the EUA, we saw vaccinations starting to go up in the at-risk populations.”

Under the agreement, Quest's laboratories in Twinsburg and Pittsburgh will provide testing for physicians and patients of the outreach lab services business, known as LabCare Plus. Summa Health will continue to wholly own and operate its hospital labs.