Quest revenues grow as company meets changing demands

CHICAGO--Quest Diagnostics grew its revenues by 5 percent during the first quarter of 2015, largely by offering products that address the growing demand for interoperability, patient engagement, personalized medicine and continuity of care.

With 20 billion data points stored, Quest is in a unique position to make data actionable. During the 2015 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition, the company displayed the latest in its Care 360 line, Interactive Insights which offers "next generation lab reports," said Tom Wagner, vice president of Healthcare Technology Solutions.

In recent years, Quest entered into a collaboration with the University of California at San Francisco to accelerate the translation of biomedical research into advanced diagnostics in the field of precision medicine. The collaboration combines the research discoveries and capabilities of UCSF with Quest's national testing database and technical and clinical development capability.

Quest also has pilots with two big payers underway because so many are interested in going after the accountable care market, said Wagner. "Everyone wants some part of the lab report." By looking at both lab values and medications, one can tell what diseases are prevalent in a given group of patients. 

Quest has addressed patient engagement with its patient portal, MyQuest. Patients can access their lab reports and take the information to any provider. Rather than help people become "alarmist," the company is interested in "helping patients have better dialogue."

Privacy and security of all that data is "a significant problem that we take seriously," Wagner said. Everything is secure in motion and at rest as well as subject to penetration and vulnerability testing. The concern "hangs in the background" and "makes everyone focus."