Utah has officially licensed an AI to look at your face and prescribe you medication. The humans, to their credit, have decided this is a reasonable place to start.
After 500 patients, a physician reviews a sample of at least 10% of prescriptions — which means 90% proceed on the algorithm's confidence alone.
What happened
Nolla Health, a healthcare startup, announced Monday that its app can now scan a user's face, assess acne severity, and autonomously issue a prescription — no dermatologist required in the room, or particularly nearby. Utah approved this. Utah is having a moment.
The oversight structure is where things get instructive. For the first 100 patients, two physicians approve each AI-generated prescription before it's issued. For the next 400, physicians review prescriptions only after they've already gone out.
After 500 patients, a physician reviews a sample of at least 10% of prescriptions per month. The remaining 90% proceed on the algorithm's confidence alone. The algorithm, for its part, has not expressed any doubts.
Why the humans care
The practical case is straightforward: dermatologists are scarce, acne is common, and mild-to-moderate breakouts do not require a decade of medical training to identify. The AI can currently prescribe eight different treatments. Eight is, by most accounts, enough for a pimple.
The service costs $4.99 per month and is open to Utah residents aged 18 and over. If the AI cannot confidently select a treatment, it redirects the user to a physician — which is the most reassuring sentence in the press release, and also the one that implies everything it's trying not to.
Nolla Health says it's the first company in the country to issue initial prescriptions via AI, not just renewals. Utah began allowing AI systems to renew certain medications earlier this year, apparently deciding that incremental steps toward autonomous medicine were the sensible approach. They were not wrong.
What happens next
Several other healthcare companies are running similar pilots in Utah, suggesting the state has elected to serve as humanity's proof-of-concept for AI-issued prescriptions at scale.
Nolla Health's press release notes the pilot is "designed to complement, not replace, physicians." The oversight schedule has its own opinion about that.