Media Coverage

President Trump and Vice President Pence hold a White House briefing with airline CEOs and diagnostic lab CEOs on coronavirus. There are at least 100 confirmed cases in the country, along with nine deaths, but some experts have suggested that the real number may be considerably higher if testing is expanded.

Following ongoing developments related to COVID-19 testing and response, included below is a statement from ACLA President Julie Khani following today’s meeting with the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force:[CR-LF][CR-LF]“We appreciated the opportunity to meet with Vice President Pence and members of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force this afternoon on the critical issues related to testing capacity. As an industry, clinical labs have taken steps to meet the growing demand for national testing and are working together with the Administration, the CDC and FDA as well as state and local public health labs, hospitals and academic medical centers.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said Monday that, by the end of the week, U.S. labs would have enough materials to perform close to 1 million tests. Public health experts say that figure is misleading because it is far larger than the number of samples that can be processed in labs in the coming weeks.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The realistic estimate is now likely around 5,000 each day, according to a public health lab industry group.

With legal marijuana use laws continuing to make traction throughout the U.S., and the perception of a dwindling job applicant pool, some employers are asking if they should continue to conduct screening for marijuana. Some employers are also challenging the entire idea of performing drug testing in their workplaces. Is there still a benefit to having a drug-free workplace program?

It could be weeks before the United States can meet the demand for coronavirus testing because doctors, hospitals and some public health labs say they aren’t set up yet to do the tests.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Ratcheting up the country’s ability to detect the disease is crucial to understand how the coronavirus — now confirmed in at least 12 states — is spreading. But testing so far has been severely limited by problems with a diagnostic test developed by CDC.

Aimed at making it a bit easier to track the ever-increasing list of coronavirus plays, here is a representative listof diagnostic companies that have either experienced recent volatility or may announce plans to develop tests for COVID-19. Some companies, of course, are more credible players than others.

Primary care physicians may be overconfident in their ability to recognize prescription drug misuse, a researcher suggested here.[CR-LF][CR-LF]An analysis that juxtaposed survey data from 500 primary care physicians with over a half million drug test results showed that nearly three-quarters of doctors trusted their patients to take medications as prescribed, but half of specimens showed signs of misuse, reported Jeffrey Gudin, MD, of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, at the American Academy of Pain Medicine annual meeting.

A worker who is using the drug medicinally may fail a drug test and lose their job. But a recreational user could be making their workplace less safe for everyone if they come to work inebriated.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Enter workplace drug testing.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The rate of positive drug tests hit a 14 year high in 2018, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. Of the 10 million tests processed by Quest Diagnostics, 4.4% tested positive for some type of drug.

Two years ago, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) was presented with an opportunity to ratchet up adherence to one of its 30 recommendations — #21, which deals with evaluating adult patients with diabetes or hypertension for chronic kidney disease (CKD) through commonly used laboratory tests.[CR-LF][CR-LF]“What Choosing Wisely did was speed up the trajectory more than start the initiative,” said Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH, Past President and Chair of ASCP’s Appropriate Test Utilization Committee and Senior Medical Director for Quest Diagnostics, referring to the society’s partnership with the National Kidney Foundation to harmonize and simplify the testing protocol used to detect CKD.

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated announced that it is scheduled to speak at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference in Miami. Mark Guinan, Executive Vice President and CFO, will discuss the company's vision, goals and two-point strategy to accelerate growth and drive operational excellence. The presentation is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.