Industry Buzz: Quest, HDL Sign Deals With NFL Teams

The Obama administration was unsuccessful in a recent attempt to get the National Football League to promote the Affordable Care Act. But the nation’s largest laboratory and an emerging regional player have had no such difficulties inking branding deals with two NFL teams. Quest Diagnostics and Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL) have recently inked marketing deals with the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, the nearest teams to their respective headquarters in Madison, N.J., and Richmond, Va. Such deals have been fairly common among sports teams, hospitals, and other high-profile providers, but they have been less common with ancillary providers such as laboratories. The HDL deal will focus on the players using the company’s cardiometabolic testing panel. A number of Redskins underwent testing by HDL recently, although the results are being kept confidential. A 2008 study of 233 retired NFL players by the Mayo Clinic discovered more than 80 percent of that population under the age of 50 was at increased risk for heart disease when compared to non-NFL players. The Quest deal is more general—it will work with the Giants to develop sports-related diagnostics assays. “We see our relationship with Quest as the next step in the process of achieving a healthier and safer game during our players’ careers and after their playing days,” said Giants President John Mara. Quest spokesperson Wendy Bost said the relationship will be used to create and market assays for both professional and amateur athletes, although no specific details were available. There are no plans to develop tests for one of the biggest health problems in the NFL right now—the effect of repeated concussions on cognitive abilities. Quest officials have suggested its deal with the Giants would help raise consumer awareness about laboratory testing—the cost of which has been systematically shifted over to individual patients in recent years. However, one laboratory industry observer didn’t think such deals would help labs in terms of increased brand awareness. “Consumers won’t care about this,” said Kathleen Murphy, chief executive officer of Chi Solutions, a laboratory consulting firm in Ann Arbor, Mich. Takeaway: Some labs are entering into branding opportunities with NFL teams, but their effectiveness remains to be seen.