Topics in Drug Testing from Quest Diagnostics: Recent Episodes
questdrugtesting
During each of the last 3 years more than 100,000 people have died from drug overdoses in the United States. During this same time period, there has been a significant increase in patients suffering from mental health conditions. Today in the US, nearly 50 million patients are prescribed medications for mental health conditions, and that number is growing. Many of these medications are scheduled drugs / controlled substances. Drug testing is a critical tool to help monitor medication adherence for patients taking these medications. Drug testing can help to establishing a baseline for patients and help identify medication use or non-use, detect use of illicit substances, and help to prevent potential drug-drug interactions and harmful poly-substance use.
Today’s Topics in Drug Testing podcast episode will cover:
- Overview of the status of mental health in the US and mental health medication prescribing
- The role of drug testing in helping to monitor medication adherence for mental health and other controlled medications as well as identify illicit substance use and potential, harmful drug-drug interactions
- Implementing a responsible drug monitoring protocol in your practice, including how to test, who to test, what drugs to test for, and what frequency to test
You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series, please visit QuestDrugTesting.com.
At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insights to support your clinical decisions.
Drug testing plays a critical role in combating the drug misuse epidemic. There are 2 main methods of clinical drug testing: presumptive testing, which includes rapid point-of-care (POC) devices as well as more sensitive laboratory immunoassays; and definitive testing, which uses highly complex laboratory instruments to identify and quantify prescription medications, illicit substances, and specific parent drugs and their metabolites, often missed by POC testing.
In today’s podcast episode, Quest Drug Monitoring & Toxicology experts will cover:
- Overview of the different types of drug testing
- Limitations of point-of-care drug testing
- Quest best practices for responsible drug testing
You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series, please visit QuestDrugTesting.com.
At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insights to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s episode is with Quest Diagnostics senior medical advisor, Dr Jeff Gudin, and Dr Jack Kain, director and medical science liaison for the Quest Drug Monitoring and Toxicology business.
The podcast will cover:
- Overview of the new Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) blood test from Quest
- Clinical Utility of PEth blood testing for Alcohol detection
- Benefits of Peth blood testing vs urine testing with ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulfate (EtS)
You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series, please visit QuestDrugTesting.com.
At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Welcome to the Quest Diagnostics “topics in drug testing” podcast. Today’s episode is with Quest Diagnostics senior medical advisor, Dr Jeff Gudin, and Dr Jack Kain, director and medical science liaison for the Quest Drug Monitoring and Toxicology business.
The podcast will cover:
- Summary of the 2022 CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids
for Pain - Summary of key findings from the Quest Diagnostics Health Trends report,
Drug Misuse in America 2022—A Decade Lost to the Drug Crisis
You may download a PDF of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series, please visit QuestDrugTesting.com.
At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Learning objectives for the podcast include:
- Learn how ketamine is increasingly being used as an anesthetic, analgesic, antidepressant, …and a hallucinogen1
- Gain an understanding of the risks of ketamine use and ways it is misused
- Appreciate the role of drug testing when ketamine is prescribed or suspected
You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series or learn more about the comprehensive drug testing offering from Quest Diagnostics, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
- Bahr R, Lopez A, Rey JA. Intranasal Esketamine(SpravatoTM) for use in treatment-resistant depression In conjunction with an oral antidepressant.P&T. 2019;44(6):340-375.
Objectives for the podcast include:
- Understand drug metabolism and how prescription and illicit drugs and their metabolites are eliminated from the body
- Learn about drug half-life and windows of detection, and how they are related
- Gain a deeper understanding of specific variables that can impact a drug's window of detection
You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series or learn more about the comprehensive drug testing offering from Quest Diagnostics, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insights to support your clinical decisions.
Objectives for the podcast include:
- Hear results from the recent Quest Diagnostics Health Trends report which combines data from a Harris Poll survey of over 500 primary care physicians, with results of clinical drug laboratory testing performed by Quest Diagnostics across the US
- Gain a deeper understanding of the contributing factors to the significant surge in drug overdose deaths that we have seen in the US
- Learn about barriers health professionals face in their ability to monitor and intervene with their patients at risk for drug misuse
You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series or learn more about the comprehensive drug testing offering from Quest Diagnostics, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast will cover a substance of great concern today, fentanyl. We will discuss and share information regarding the following:
- Latest trends in the drug misuse epidemic in the US
- What you need to know about fentanyl
- Why you need to consider drug testing for fentanyl (and other illicit substances) and how to implement drug testing in your practice
The episode will feature Quest Senior Medical Advisor Dr Jeff Gudin and Medical Science Liaison Dr Jack Kain.
You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series, or learn more about Quest Diagnostics’ comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast will cover the value of prescription and illicit drug testing and provide insight on the different clinical drug testing methodologies. We will discuss and share information regarding the following:
- Current state of the drug misuse epidemic in the US
- The value and clinical utility of drug testing
- Overview of the 2 main methodologies of drug testing, presumptive and definitive
The episode will feature Quest Senior Medical Advisor, Dr Jeff Gudin; Medical Science Liaison Jack Kain, PharmD; and Executive Science Director, Les Edinboro, PhD.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series, or learn more about Quest Diagnostics’ comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
The convergence of the opioid epidemic and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created new healthcare challenges. Health systems, from a system- and individual clinician-level, are more important than ever in the pursuit of addressing the epidemic within the pandemic.
In this session, Dr Gudin discusses with Dr Pat Alagia on the Quest Dialogues podcast:
- Recently-published data by Quest that demonstrates decreased drug testing overall, with increased positivity for high-risk drugs and dangerous drug combinations
- Tools and practices for clinicians to assess and stratify patients for potential prescription drug abuse
- System-level strategies that employ an integrated care delivery approach, including leveraging community and diagnostics partnerships, to support impacted patient populations
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About Dr Pat Alagia
As an entrepreneurial, innovative, and forward-thinking physician executive, Dr Alagia has developed extensive experience and deep expertise throughout the healthcare ecosystem through his many years in the health system C-Suite and as a Senior Executive in major medical companies. He has led large complex academically based regional healthcare systems, for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare organizations, venture capital-backed healthcare companies, and small and large clinical practices.
Today as the Chief Clinical Officer for Hospitals and Health Systems and as a Senior Medical Director for core and advanced at Quest Diagnostics, Dr Alagia and his clinical, scientific, academic, and commercial colleagues focus on a variety of topics involving diagnostic testing and patient care across the care continuum. He and his team are passionately committed to patient care, clinical and scientific excellence, and building interdisciplinary collegial relationships.
Today’s podcast discussion will focus on clinical care for patients with mental health disorders. Will discuss and share information regarding:
- Mental health disorder and substance abuse prevalence
- The clinical utility of pharmacogenomics in mental health and addiction
- Mental health disorders and medication nonadherence
The episode will feature Quest Senior Medical Advisor, Dr Jeff Gudin; Medical Liaison Jack Kain, PharmD; and Director, Medical Science Liaison—Neurology and Pharmacogenomics, Raymond Lorenz.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series, or learn more about Quest Diagnostics’ comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast discussion will focus on appropriate steps to take to implement an effective Drug Monitoring Protocol in your practice. Key information shared will include:
- Some of the key challenges facing clinicians today
- Important steps to take for implementing a responsible drug monitoring protocol
- How Quest can help
The episode will feature Quest Senior Medical Advisor, Dr Jeff Gudin; Medical Liaison Jack Kain, PharmD; and Senior Product Manager Jason Suomala, for the Quest Diagnostics Drug Monitoring and Toxicology division.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series, or learn more about Quest Diagnostics' comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast discussion will focus on the importance of drug monitoring and the benefits of “alternative” sample collection options during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key information shared will include:
- How clinical drug monitoring is a critical tool to help assess prescription compliance with controlled substances and help identify drug misuse
- Situations, including the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-office collection isn't always possible
- Quest Diagnostics’ offerings for alternative specimen collection options, including:
- Self /At-Home collection
- Patient Service Center collection
- How alternative collection options can help ensure your patients get the testing they need
The episode will feature Quest Senior Medical Advisor, Dr Jeff Gudin, and Jason Suomala, Senior Product Manager for the Quest Diagnostics Drug Monitoring and Toxicology division.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series or learn more about Quest Diagnostics' comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast will share results of a recent Quest Diagnostics Health Trends™ publication, The Opioid Epidemic Within the COVID-19 Pandemic: Drug Monitoring in 2020, which was published in the October 2020 edition of Population Health Management. The study objective was to better understand the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the drug epidemic in the US. To achieve this objective, investigators analyzed urine specimen results from an analytic cohort of 872,762 specimens from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Findings demonstrated significant changes in prescription drug monitoring and positivity rates for many drugs of concern. Important study results and conclusions discussed will include:
- Clinical drug testing decreased significantly during the pandemic period
- Nonprescribed positivity for fentanyl, heroin, and other drugs of concern increased significantly
- Many dangerous drug combinations, including combinations with fentanyl, increased significantly
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment of patients at risk for substance use disorder
- The role of clinical drug monitoring
This episode features Dr Jeff Gudin, senior medical advisor, Quest Diagnostics Drug Monitoring and Toxicology, and Justin Niles, lead medical informatics analyst for Quest Diagnostics Health Trends™.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
Today’s podcast will cover drug testing for stimulants and will highlight some of the challenges in results interpretation for this class of drugs. Important information shared during the discussion will include:
- What is classified as a stimulant
- Analysis of Amphetamine, Methamphetamine, and MDMA
- Interpretation challenges
- Synthetic stimulants
- The role of clinical drug monitoring
- Quest Diagnostics amphetamine drug testing offering
The episode features Dr Les Edinboro, PhD, executive science director, and Dr Jeff Gudin, senior medical advisor, Quest Diagnostics Drug Monitoring and Toxicology.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our “Topics in Drug Testing” series, or learn more about Quest Diagnostics comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast will cover the role of clinical drug monitoring in Behavioral Health and during times of crisis. Important information shared will include:
- Mental Health disorders, diagnosis and prevalence
- The challenge of medication adherence in mental health treatment
- The impact of crises on the treatment of patients with mental health conditions
- The role of clinical drug monitoring
The episode features Dr Jeff Gudin, senior medical advisor and Dr Jack Kain, medical science liaison for the Quest Diagnostics Drug Monitoring and Toxicology division.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our Topics in Drug Testing series or learn more about Quest Diagnostics comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast will cover key findings from the annual Quest Diagnostics Health Trends report, Drug Misuse in America. Some of the key topics shared will include:
- Summary of analysis of more than 4.4 million de-identified drug monitoring tests performed by Quest Diagnostics from 2011 through 2018
- Findings of a Harris Poll survey of 500 primary care physicians, as part of Health Trends report analysis
- Highlights of the evolving drug misuse crisis in America, including Drug mixing and the overdose death connection
- Key challenges facing physicians today, with regards to identifying drug misuse, and treating patients with chronic pain
- The role and importance of drug monitoring and incorporating it into medical practice
This episode features Dr Jeff Gudin, senior medical advisor, Quest Diagnostics Drug Monitoring and Toxicology, and Justin Niles, lead medical informatics analyst for Quest Diagnostics Health Trends™.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here>>
To listen to other podcasts in our series or learn more about Quest Diagnostics' comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast will cover testing for kratom, a drug of concern. Some of the key information shared will include:
- What is kratom?
- What is the chemical make-up?
- Kratom toxicity and side effects
- Testing for kratom
- Why testing is important?
- How to test for kratom
- What testing will tell you
This episode features Jack Kain, PharmD, Quest Diagnostics medical science liaison, and Jeff Gudin, MD, senior medical advisor, Quest Diagnostics drug monitoring.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here>>
To listen to other podcasts in our series or learn more about Quest Diagnostics' comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today's podcast will cover why and when to use oral fluid testing. Some key topics shared will include:
- What is oral fluid testing?
- Comparison of oral fluid testing to other methods of testing
- The benefits of oral fluid testing?
- Some of the drugs oral fluid testing can identify?
- How are the drugs identified?
- How is the sample collected?
- Discussion on some of the key collection issues
The episode features Les Edinboro, PhD, Quest Diagnostics executive science director, toxicology and drug monitoring, and Jeff Gudin, MD, senior medical advisor, Quest Diagnostics drug monitoring.
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You may download a PDF version of this presentation here >> Download the oral fluid specimen collection instructions PDF here >> Download the oral fluid testing brochure PDF here >>
To listen to other podcasts in our series or learn more about Quest Diagnostics comprehensive drug testing offering, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com. There you will find our Drug Monitoring Test Directory, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics we are committed to providing you results and insight to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s podcast will cover dangerous drug combinations and the role of clinical drug monitoring. Some of the key information that will be shared includes:
- What are dangerous drug combinations
- What practitioners and the public need to know about them
- How dangerous drug combinations can work together to lead to side effects
- Certain combinations predispose people to a greater risk of overdose and death
- Combinations that can affect drug levels, creating a pharmacokinetic drug–drug interaction
- Certain combinations that may result in excessive sedation
- How drug testing can help
- A tool to identify dangerous drug combinations
- How drug testing identifies metabolites unique to a substance
This episode features Quest Diagnostics Senior Medical Advisor Dr Jeff Gudin and Medical Science Liaison Dr Jack Kain.
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You may download the PDF version of this presentation here>>
To learn more, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com for information on our Drug Monitoring Test Directory and offerings, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insights to support your clinical decisions.
The podcast will cover screening (drug testing) for alcohol use in pain management and primary care. Topics covered will include:
- Understand drug and alcohol misuse and abuse
- Prevalence rates of alcohol use and misuse, and alcohol use disorders
- Information on alcohol use, and concomitant use with opioids and benzodiazepines
- Screening guidelines
- Tools and types of tests
- Testing for alcohol
- Breathalyzer
- Advances in testing
- Biomarkers
- Other considerations
- Quest Diagnostics approach
This episode features Quest Diagnostics Senior Medical Advisor Dr Jeff Gudin and Medical Science Liaison Dr Jack Kain.
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You may download the PDF version of this presentation here>>
To learn more, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com for information on our Drug Monitoring Test Directory and offerings, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insights to support your clinical decisions.
Today’s episode is on patients with substance use disorders in medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Some of the key points that will be covered include:
- What is medication-assisted treatment
- What are the goals of an MAT treatment program
- Medications used in MAT treatment
- Drug testing during MAT
- Purpose of drug testing
- Types of drug testing
- Specimen collection
- Specimen validity
- Test confirmation
This episode features Quest Diagnostics Senior Medical Advisor, Dr Jeff Gudin, and Medical Science Liaison, Dr Jack Kain.
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You may download the PDF version of this presentation here >
To learn more, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com for information on our Drug Monitoring Test Directory and offerings, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insights to support your clinical decisions.
Today, we will be talking about marijuana and marijuana-based products in order to:
- Understand drug testing for marijuana, and why it’s important
- Examine marijuana used in concert with controlled medications for pain or ADHD
- Give some general recommendations for therapeutic drug monitoring for marijuana in patients with chronic pain using controlled substances
- For example, at a minimum such patients should be tested before opioid therapy begins, again within 1 to 3 months, and randomly over the next 12 months, and more frequently if there are unexpected results, or there are complaints or behavior changes in the patient
The episode features Quest Diagnostics Senior Medical Advisor, Dr Jeff Gudin, and Medical Science Liaison, Dr Jack Kain. They will be discussing drug testing your patients for marijuana.
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You may download the PDF version of this presentation here >
To learn more, please visit QuestDrugMonitoring.com for information on our Drug Monitoring Test Directory and offerings, as well as educational resources and insights from our team of toxicology experts. At Quest Diagnostics, we are committed to providing you results and insights to support your clinical decisions.