Utah Clears World's First Autonomous Prescriptions without Doctors
The one-year pilot limits prescriptions to eight topical acne treatments and requires physician review of the first 100 cases.
- On Monday, Utah regulators authorized New York-based startup Nolla Health to allow its AI to evaluate patients and issue initial acne prescriptions without prior human review, marking a significant test of autonomous medical decision-making in the U.S.
- The program operates through the Nolla Derm app, where patients complete a 10- to 15-minute questionnaire and facial scan; it is part of a closely watched "AI sandbox" program that allows Utah's Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy to waive regulations.
- Nolla Health will use a phased approach, starting with two physicians approving every prescription for the first 100 patients, then loosening oversight to retrospective weekly reviews. The system must hand cases to a doctor if it cannot "confidently select a treatment."
- Chief Executive Luis Wenus aims to make dermatological care more affordable; the app costs $4.99 per month, significantly cheaper than typical visits running between $150 and $300. This could free providers to address more complex inflammatory diseases.
- While Nolla Health claims clinicians agree with its recommendations in more than 96 percent of cases, American Medical Association CEO John Whyte argues these tools shouldn't autonomously practice medicine. The startup plans to eventually expand beyond acne medication.
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Can AI Prescribe Medicine?
Utah has opened the nation’s first state-regulated path for an artificial intelligence system to issue an initial prescription without a doctor reviewing the individual case first. The Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy authorized Nolla Health’s acne-treatment pilot under an agreement signed September 22. Nolla announced on October 5 that Utah residents age 18 and […]
New Hampshire Licenses AI as Medical Provider for Acne Diagnosis and Treatment
A new law in New Hampshire has licensed Nabla’s AI system as a medical provider, allowing it to independently diagnose and treat mild acne cases using patient photos, history, and clinical guidelines. The narrowly scoped approval includes safety handoffs to human dermatologists and will be closely monitored as a test case for broader AI use in healthcare.
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