AI can now prescribe acne drugs in Utah (opens the source in a new tab)
- From Monday, Nolla Health’s app can send acne prescriptions straight to pharmacies in Utah, the first time a state has let AI stand in for the doctor, under a ‘narrow exception’ from Utah’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy.
- Patients scan their face and enter their medical history; the AI scores acne severity and picks from eight approved topical treatments, with no pills or hormone therapies.
- Oversight tapers: a physician checks the first 100 patients before anything is sent, the next 400 weekly after the fact, and then at least 10% of prescriptions each month. The pilot runs a year, renewable for two more.
- 8
- topical drugs only
- ~$5/mo
- app; visits $150–300
- 10%+
- later doctor checks
Why it matters A tightly fenced test of whether software can do a doctor’s routine job.
Other side Scripts still carry a clinician’s name and doctors review a share of them. The AMA’s John Whyte doubts AI can meet the standard humans are held to. A safe shortcut, or a precedent for riskier drugs?