Quest Diagnostics 2011 Annual Report Download - page 7

Item 1. Business
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is the world’s leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and
services. We provide insights that enable patients and physicians to make better healthcare decisions.
Quest Diagnostics was incorporated in Delaware in 1990; its predecessor companies date back to 1967. We
conduct business through our headquarters in Madison, New Jersey, and our laboratories, patient service centers,
offices and other facilities around the United States and in selected locations outside the United States. Unless the
context otherwise requires, the terms “Quest Diagnostics,” the “Company,” “we” and “our” mean Quest
Diagnostics Incorporated and its consolidated subsidiaries.
During 2011, we generated net revenues of $7.5 billion and processed approximately 146 million test
requisitions. Additional financial information concerning Quest Diagnostics, including our consolidated
subsidiaries and business segments, for each of the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009 is included
in the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto in “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” in
Part II, Item 8.
OUR STRATEGY AND STRENGTHS
Our mission is to be the undisputed world leader in diagnostic testing, information and services. We are
dedicated to improving the health of patients through unsurpassed diagnostic insights and innovation and we
focus on patients, growth and people to help achieve our goals.
Growth Strategy. We offer high value diagnostic testing services and products attractive to patients,
physicians, payers, employers and others. We believe that successful execution of our strategy will drive
continued growth of our business. Additionally, we believe that, over the long term, we will be able to grow at a
rate above the U.S. clinical laboratory industry growth rate, and to expand margins. The elements of our growth
strategy are described below.
•Leverage our assets and capabilities. We are the world leader in the clinical testing business and the
leading cancer diagnostic testing provider. We offer the broadest test menu, with more than 3,000 tests,
and are the leading provider in the United States of gene-based and esoteric testing. We offer national
access to testing services and have the most extensive clinical testing network in the United States, with
testing facilities in major metropolitan areas. We operate a nationwide specimen collection network
including approximately 2,000 of our own patient service centers and, in addition, approximately 3,000
phlebotomists in physician offices. We also operate many additional locations globally where thousands of
contracted paramedical examiners coordinate the provision of paramedical examinations related to life
insurance applications. We provide anatomic pathology services, including inpatient anatomic pathology
and medical director services at hospitals, throughout the United States. We have a medical and scientific
staff including hundreds of M.D.s and Ph.D.s, primarily located in the United States, many of whom are
recognized leaders in their field and are available for consultation. We serve approximately half of the
physicians and half of the hospitals in the United States. We have strong logistics capabilities, including
courier vehicles and aircraft that collectively make tens of thousands of stops daily. We plan to continue
to enhance our test menu and service capabilities. We believe that customers and payers prefer providers
that offer a comprehensive and innovative range of tests and services and the most convenient access to
those services and that, by offering such services, we will be able to profitably enhance our market
position.
•Continue to lead in medical innovation. We are a leading innovator in the clinical testing market with
unsurpassed medical and technical expertise. We collaborate with leading academic centers and maintain
relationships with advisors and consultants that are leaders in key fields, such as cardiology, oncology,
neurology and infectious disease. In connection with our research and development efforts, our medical
and scientific experts publish in peer-reviewed journals research that demonstrates the clinical value and
importance of diagnostic testing. In 2011, we published over fifty articles that support advancements and
the latest thinking in laboratory testing and disease diagnosis. Over the past several years, we have
expanded our business in more complex and faster-growing testing areas, including gene-based and
esoteric testing and diagnostics products.
We see significant opportunity to use diagnostics for personalized medicine and, as a result of combining
the resources we gained through our 2011 acquisition of Celera Corporation with our other assets, can
offer an “end to end” array of services for companion diagnostics. We have expertise dealing with
biomarkers in clinical trials, have biomarker discovery capabilities, and can make available laboratory
developed tests, in vitro diagnostics (“IVD”) test kits and late-stage commercialization support for
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