theVisualMD Launches a Revolutionary New Visual Path to Wellness

NEW YORK, Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- theVisualMD, www.thevisualmd.com, the world's leading health visualization resource announces the release of its latest health initiative, The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness. Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), the world's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services, is the official sponsor of the initiative's first rule Baseline Your Health.

The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness aim to bring readers a new understanding of the marvels of the body and the health processes and behaviors that forge a path to good health. theVisualMD.com's unique digital health center available free of charge at www.thevisualmd.com combines a storytelling approach, key opinion leaders, video, startling interactive images, and thorough medical journalism. The new rules, to be published to the website each week over the next four months, will show Americans a better way to define their wellness goals, care for themselves and work with the health care system.

Baseline Your Health is Rule # 1 of The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness.  What is a health baseline? It starts with a series of measurements -- known as biomarkers -- that mark your biology and define your biography. Biomarkers are indicators of the body's molecular conversation. Each organ sends and receives endless microscopic messages. Health is the balance of this near-perfect communication. Every message is the result of chemical crosstalk, of call and response. When this exchange of information is out of balance, the conversation turns to illness. Health care providers measure health using biomarkers collected during the physical examination and laboratory test evaluation. They measure blood pressure, pulse and weight, as well as blood counts and cholesterol levels.

theVisualMD.com and leading key opinion leaders present commonly ordered tests that measure the functions of organs -- blood, heart, liver, pancreas, kidney, sexual, thyroid -- and will also show the future of testing, including new brain imaging techniques and genetic panels. When you visit your health care provider, you are reassured when you learn that your biological indices are normal or normalizing. For those with abnormal values, tracking biomarker changes over time is critical as you define your wellness mission. With theVisualMD.com's new pictorial atlas of health, each of us can understand how well we are right now, and what health goals we need to set.  

"With mounting concerns about the poor health of Americans and the country's skyrocketing healthcare costs, it is more important than ever that people understand the behaviors they can follow to improve their health. theVisualMD harnesses the richness of digital media to simplify information about wellness and the value of biomarker-based laboratory testing in a visual and easy narrative everyone can understand," said Jon R. Cohen, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Quest Diagnostics.  

Quest Diagnostics' laboratory testing services include Blueprint for Wellness, an employer lab-based wellness service designed to help employees understand and take proactive measures to correct risk factors for common diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In December 2011, the peer-reviewed journal PLos One published results of a study performed by Quest Diagnostics' scientists that found that one in three first-time participants in the service were not aware they were at high risk for a serious medical condition until they received results of lab tests. The study involved a cross-sectional analysis of lab results of nearly 53,000 first-time wellness plan adult participants in the service between 2003 and 2010.

"Traditional wellness plans lack metrics and measurement beyond weight and BMI," says theVisualMD founder Alexander Tsiaras.  "We believe a more comprehensive approach to health and wellness, utilizing personal biomarker management and the 9 Visual Rules of Wellness and the Biomarker Library will be one of the driving forces in improving the overall health and wellness of average Americans." 

The Biomarker Library As part of the The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness initiative, theVisualMD.com presents its Biomarker Library, a never-before-seen visual collection of common laboratory results that have always been presented as simply numbers on a page. In addition to colorful images of each biomarker, the library offers explanations of their significance and reference ranges for test results and the medical problems associated with abnormal values. These measurements of molecular and cellular processes inform our health care decisions and solutions.

After the Baseline Your Health rule is unveiled, the remaining 9 Visual Rules of Wellness will be presented each Monday beginning January 3rd until April 9th at www.thevisualmd.com. They are:

Rule #2   Define Your Wellness Mission
Rule #3   Develop and Maintain Nutritional Balance
Rule #4   Get Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise
Rule #5   Never Smoke. If You Do, We'll Show You How to Stop
Rule #6   Take a Moderate Approach
Rule #7   Make Sleep a Priority
Rule #8   Manage Your Stress
Rule #9   Embrace Joy

Together, the rules comprising this health initiative can guide you along a path to robust good health, a sense of well-being, and a better life.

theVisualMD.com is the interactive website of Anatomical Travelogue, LLC, and offers a rich, visual experience to learn, understand, and interact with health content on the Internet.  theVisualMD.com is the world's largest library of high-resolution 3D scans of real human data. This massive collection is used to create one-of-a-kind visualizations with the most advanced 3D medical visualization technologies in the world.

Quest Diagnostics is the world's leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and services that patients and doctors need to make better healthcare decisions. The company offers the broadest access to diagnostic testing services through its network of laboratories and patient service centers, and provides interpretive consultation through its extensive medical and scientific staff. Quest Diagnostics is a pioneer in developing innovative new diagnostic tests and advanced healthcare information technology solutions that help improve patient care. Additional company information is available at QuestDiagnostics.com. Follow us at Facebook.com/QuestDiagnostics and Twitter.com/QuestDX. 

theVisualMD media contact:
Eric Plaskonos
212-625-6653 

Quest Diagnostics media contact:
Wendy Bost
973-520-2800

SOURCE theVisualMD