AI Doctors Are Now Allowed To Prescribe Medicine in Utah Without Any Human Oversight, Starting With Acne

Utah has become the first state in the country to allow AI to write prescriptions for acne without human approval — a milestone in a quest to allow machines to diagnose medical conditions and prescribe medicine without involving doctors.The fully autonomous medical care will examine patients via smartphone images, diagnose their conditions and prescribe treatment on its own if a patient needs it, without once consulting a human medical professional.For now, the efforts are part of a pilot program overseen by human doctors, and are limited to acne treatment. But that hasn’t stopped resistance from Utah’s medical licensing board and others who see the march toward fully autonomous medical care as a step too far.“We have crossed a threshold in terms of giving something that is not human a medical license, whether or not we want to call it that,” Dr. Eric Bressman of the University of Pennsylvania said in July.On Tuesday, Utah’s governor signed an executive order to mandate AI maintain a “pro-human” focus that includes an emphasis on “privacy “ and “human dignity” as he mandated AI training across state government.“AI represents a generational opportunity to better serve Utahns, but technology must always remain accountable to the people,” Gov. Spencer Cox said in a statement. Utah has been enthusiastically developing partnerships with AI companies, and its Department of Commerce operates a “Pro-Human AI Taskforce.” Yesterday, the Commerce Department announced the formation of a healthcare portion of the task force and added the state’s Commissioner of Health and Human Services to the panel.Yet it underlines the conundrum various professions are facing — from the law to cybersecurity to clerical work – with exclusive human control slowly but surely slipping away as AI abilities advance. In April, Utah’s medical licensing board objected to an earlier authorization for AI to refill prescriptions. “Proceeding with this agreement without consulting the Medical Board potentially places Utah citizens at risk and remains a major concern of the board,” the 11 members wrote. “We must not allow AI or other financial motivations to override this obligation, yet that is precisely what occurred here.”The head of the panel, Dr. Alan Smith, was not available for comment Tuesday.Nolla Health developed the acne diagnosis app approved for use in Utah and says it is operating the first end-to-end AI doctor in the world.Patients upload photos of their faces through the app for analysis by AI, followed by a 10-to-15-minute questionnaire. The AI analyzes the skin images for any condition, reports a diagnosis and decides the treatment.Under the authorization obtained from Utah two weeks ago, the AI can then write the prescription, follow up and adjust the care as needed.Human doctors are looking over the AI’s work during the pilot period. But if the AI shows 95 percent agreement with human doctors and zero adverse effects, it could be approved by the state to operate fully autonomously in the future.Utah’s Commerce department also approved separate pilot programs for chronic disease medication refills wirh oversight from human doctors, plus an AI-driven physical therapy for postpartum and pelvic health.“Until now, AI in healthcare has been limited to answering questions, summarizing information, or assisting a clinician,” said Luis Wenus, a medical AI researcher who’s the co-founder and CEO of Nolla Health. “We’ve seen a handful of organizations approved to refill prescriptions initially written by a human doctor with AI.”The pilot agreement in Utah does put constraints on who can use the AI doctor — only adults, and not pregnant or breastfeeding women, people with liver or kidney disease or those who suffer from drug reactions. The AI is only allowed to prescribe topical treatments and is limited to a handful of medications.“As a reasonably disinterested observer, I’ve been impressed by how Utah is proceeding,” said Dr. Matthew Zirwas, a dermatologist, on social media. “Starting with relatively low risk permissions and letting companies build it out as they can show data to support it.”Nolla Health says the average wait time for Utahans to see a dermatologist is 61 days. “Our goal is to automate routine care while giving patients the quality and follow-up they’d expect from a top specialist,” Mr. Wenus said. “That frees doctors to focus on the more complex, high-risk cases where their expertise matters most.”“This is a great step for clinical AI,” Matt Pavelle, co-founder of the medical AI company Doctronic said on social media. Doctronic already has a partnership with Utah. “We all need both rigorous internal evaluation and independent oversight.”

AI Doctors Are Now Allowed To Prescribe Medicine in Utah Without Any Human Oversight, Starting With Acne

AI Doctors Are Now Allowed To Prescribe Medicine in Utah Without Any Human Oversight, Starting With Acne

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