Quest Diagnostics 2010 Annual Report Download - page 7

medical directors, scientific directors, genetic counselors and board certified geneticists are available for
consultation with our customers regarding testing that we perform.
Routine clinical testing. We are the leading provider of routine clinical testing, including testing for drugs-
of-abuse. We perform routine testing through our network of major laboratories and rapid response laboratories.
Rapid response laboratories are smaller facilities where we can quickly perform an abbreviated menu of routine
tests for customers that require rapid turnaround times. We also perform routine testing at hospital laboratories
that we manage. We operate laboratories 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, performing and reporting most routine
tests within 24 hours. The majority of test results are delivered electronically.
Routine tests measure various important bodily health parameters such as the functions of the kidney, heart,
liver, thyroid and other organs. Commonly ordered tests include:
•blood chemistries, including cholesterol levels;
•complete blood cell counts;
•urinalyses;
•pregnancy and other prenatal tests;
•routine microbiology testing;
•prescription drug monitoring;
•alcohol and other substance-abuse tests; and
•allergy tests such as the ImmunoCap威test.
Anatomic pathology testing. We are the leading provider of anatomic pathology services in the United States,
through our AmeriPathTM, Dermpath DiagnosticsTM and Quest Diagnostics brands. Anatomic pathology involves
the diagnosis of cancer and other diseases and medical conditions through examination of tissue and cell samples
taken from patients. We provide inpatient anatomic pathology and medical director services at hospitals
throughout the country, and through our major laboratories.
We provide a full range of services to all anatomic pathology subspecialties. We have approximately 725
medical doctors, including luminaries in their field, with a passion for providing the highest quality service to
patients. Among them are approximately 700 pathologists. We provide integrated, comprehensive reports that
include both anatomic pathology and clinical pathology tests, enabling our pathologists to offer patients and
physicians a complete analysis. Our approach fosters personalized patient care.
We have a strong history of leadership and innovation in cancer diagnostics. We introduced the Leumeta威
family of tests for leukemia and lymphoma. These proprietary plasma-based molecular tests may some day
eliminate the need for painful bone marrow biopsies. As discussed below under the heading “Scientific
Innovation,” recently we introduced our Lung Cancer Mutation Panel, designed to aid treatment selection for lung
cancer patients. This panel detects mutations in the EFGR, ALK and KRAS genes. This panel, together with our
numerous individual tests for lung cancer mutations, provides the most comprehensive lung cancer test offerings
available from a commercial laboratory.
Gene-Based and Esoteric Testing. We are the leading provider in the United States of gene-based and
esoteric testing. Gene-based and esoteric tests increasingly are ordered by physicians to assist them in the
diagnostic process, to establish a prognosis and to choose or monitor a therapeutic regimen. Esoteric tests include
procedures in the areas of molecular diagnostics, protein chemistry, cellular immunology and advanced
microbiology. Commonly ordered esoteric tests include viral and bacterial detection tests, drug therapy monitoring
tests, autoimmune panels and complex cancer evaluations. Esoteric tests typically require professional “hands-on”
attention from highly-skilled technical personnel, generally require more sophisticated technology, equipment or
materials and may be performed less frequently than routine tests. Consequently, esoteric tests are generally
reimbursed at higher levels than routine tests. It is not practical, from a cost-effectiveness or infrastructure
perspective, for most hospitals, commercial laboratories or physician office laboratories to develop and perform a
broad menu of esoteric tests, or to perform low-volume esoteric testing in-house. Such tests generally are
outsourced to an esoteric clinical testing laboratory, which specializes in performing these complex tests. We
conduct complex and specialized testing, including molecular diagnostics, in our world renowned Quest
Diagnostics Nichols Institute laboratory facilities, and in a number of other locations, including
Focus Diagnostics.
Our esoteric laboratories provide reference testing services to physicians, large academic medical centers,
hospitals and other commercial laboratories. Our esoteric testing laboratories perform hundreds of complex tests
that are not routinely performed by our regional laboratories, including but not limited to the following fields:
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