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Steve Rusckowski discusses how the omicron variant impacted Q4 earnings on 'The Claman Countdown.'

The at-home testing market is bigger than just Covid tests, and it's bigger than over-the-counter pregnancy tests. In fact, the emerging marketplace of consumer-initiated lab testing may be worth more than $2 billion by 2025, according to Quest Diagnostics.

Quest Diagnostics said Monday that it will offer consumer-initiated lab testing in collaboration with Walmart. Quest said it is making more than 50 tests, including those for general health, digestive health, allergy, heart health, women's health, and infectious disease, available at Walmart.com through its QuestDirect service.

Clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics is launching an at-home COVID-19 rapid antigen test service that can certify results 24/7 via telehealth. The service enables the 15-minute self-administered Abbott BinaxNow COVID-19 home test to be used under observation from a certified telehealth proctor.

Quest Diagnostics will acquire the patient engagement company Pack Health, the organizations announced. "Quest Diagnostics and Pack Health have complementary capabilities that, when combined, will strengthen our ability to help health plans and other risk-bearing organizations deliver value-based care," Dermot Shorten, senior vice president of strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and ventures at Quest Diagnostics, wrote in an email.

Harvey Kaufman, MD, MBA, senior medical director at Quest Diagnostics, led a study for the company examining the impact of COVID-19 on prostate cancer screening and diagnoses. The results of the study are part of Quest Diagnostics Health Trends, which he has been involved with since it began in 2005 and now leads. CLP sat down with Kaufman prior to the Omicron surge to discuss the findings of the study and about the future of diagnostic testing in general.

Quest Diagnostics signaled an upbeat 2021 profit as COVID-19 testing volumes surged with the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the United States. Quest said it performed over 120,000 PCR tests per day in the last couple of weeks of 2021, and over 150,000 tests a day at the beginning of this year.

At-home COVID-19 antigen tests are in high demand, and for good reason. They're quick, convenient, and can help you contain the spread of the infection. That said, the FDA has acknowledged that certain rapid antigen tests may be less sensitive to the Omicron variant, prompting speculation that there's got to be a better way. "As more countries continue the double-swab method, it may impact future FDA and CDC guidelines for those of us in the US. But it's important to reiterate that this method is currently not authorized by the FDA," says Jeffrey Dlott, MD, the medical director of consumer health at Quest Diagnostics, which conducts testing for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

Quest Diagnostics, a diagnostic information services provider based in New Jersey, announced Dec. 14 it has acquired Labtech Diagnostics, an independent clinical diagnostic laboratory provider in Anderson, for an undisclosed sum.

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics this fall suggested that more than half of all US children have detectable levels of lead in their blood – and that elevated blood lead levels were closely associated with race, poverty and living in older housing. “Most American children are exposed to lead, a substance that is not safe at any level,” said co-author Dr Harvey Kaufman, a senior medical director at Quest Diagnostics, which led the study.