Health Trends™ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

About Quest Diagnostics Health Trends™

What is Health Trends™?

Quest Diagnostics Health Trends™ is a source of patient health information based on patient testing data in the nation’s largest database of clinical results Only de-identified data is used in the analysis, meaning that all identifying information, such as the patient’s name and address, insurance identifiers, and the physician’s name, is removed.

Why has Quest Diagnostics launched Health Trends™?

We have a wealth of important data about the health status of people who visit the doctor because of the clinical laboratory testing we perform. In particular, we feel that our data provides a window into how “real-world medicine” is advancing the nation’s health and well-being.

What is Quest Diagnostics’ objective for Health Trends™?

Our goal for Health Trends™ is to identify and track health trends and make them available as a public service to help educate patients, health professionals, and policy-makers about the current status of the nation’s health, and to help them make decisions using our data. We are launching the first edition of Health Trends™ on LDL cholesterol, but hope to utilize our extensive database of de-identified laboratory test results to study trends in other diseases and medical conditions.

Why are you doing this?

Our objective is to identify and track health trends and make them available as a public service. We don’t expect this information to contribute to changes in doctors’ test-ordering patterns.

Does the reports compromise patient confidentiality?

No. The test results evaluated show the patient’s age, gender, and geographic region. They do not identify individuals or their physicians by name, or provide defining characteristics such as a person’s ethnicity, medications, or general medical history.