Utah is letting artificial intelligence slide a little further into the doctor’s chair. The state’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy has approved three new pilots that could eventually let AI systems issue and refill certain prescriptions with less human oversight, as Healthcare Dive’s Anuja Vaidya reports. None of the programs has launched yet.
The headliner is Nolla Health, whose dermatology app assesses acne from photos and would prescribe initial medications and refills for adults with mild-to-moderate acne. The menu is deliberately short. “The AI can’t improvise. It can only choose from a short list of physician-approved topical treatments,” said Dr. Zaid Fadul, chief medical advisor for Nolla Health, in the company’s announcement.
Oversight loosens in stages. At first, physicians review every prescription before it’s sent; later, they check them only after the fact. Each company needs written approval from regulators before advancing to a phase with less supervision.
The other two pilots are August AI, which would renew prescriptions for people with chronic conditions, and Expect Fitness, which offers virtual pelvic floor therapy for women dealing with urinary incontinence, pelvic pain or postpartum pelvic floor problems.
The approvals build on a contested experiment. Earlier this year, a pilot allowed Doctronic’s AI to renew medications without clinician sign-off. Utah’s medical licensing board asked for a suspension, saying it hadn’t been told about the program. Regulators declined, arguing that clinicians supervise the AI during its early stages.
Related on the SLP
Liability remains murky. In a commentary published in JAMA Health Forum, Stanford law and health policy professor Michelle Mello argued that Doctronic’s contract is unclear about who is responsible if an AI prescribing error injures a patient.
All of this runs through Utah’s AI Learning Laboratory, a regulatory sandbox created by a 2024 state law to test AI tools under set safeguards. “Our Office facilitates innovative AI solutions while ensuring that public health and patient safety remain paramount,” said Zach Boyd, director of the Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy.
