Artificial intelligence has just taken another big step into health care.
Utah has approved what’s believed to be the first U.S. pilot program allowing an AI system to issue an initial medication prescription (not just a refill or repeat prescription) without needing a visit from the doctor.
The program, launched by Nolla Health after “months of work with the Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy,” is focused on acne treatment. The pilot, which went live on October 5, allows Utah residents aged 18 and older to use the company’s Nolla Derm app to receive acne treatment recommendations and, if appropriate, a prescription.
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The initiative comes just months after a separate AI-prescribing pilot in Utah triggered significant opposition from physicians.
In April, the Utah Medical Licensing Board formally urged state officials to “immediately” suspend a first-in-the-nation program run by Doctronic that allowed AI to handle certain prescription renewals for existing medications.
In a letter to the Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, the board said it had only discovered the program existed after it was already live and argued that prescription decisions involve “critical safety and clinical reasons,” including monitoring side effects, drug interactions, and whether medications are effective or not.
What Is Nolla Health?
Nolla Health is a health technology company focused on using AI to expand access to health care. Nolla co-founder and CEO, Luis Wenus, strongly feels that “everyone deserves access to high-quality care and personalized treatment at an affordable cost.”
According to the company, its dermatology-focused app has already been downloaded by over 175,000 users across 44 states.
Why Automate Acne Medication?
Nolla argues that dermatology is a natural place to start because acne is common, relatively low risk, and acne treatment is highly standardized, making it more suitable for an AI-assisted prescribing pilot than many other, more complex conditions.
The company says that, in Utah alone, over 100,000 have acne, but only about 10 percent ever see a dermatologist. But those who do face average wait times of up to 61 days for appointments.
Not everyone agrees that acne treatment should be among the first areas where AI is permitted to prescribe medications without a traditional doctor visit.
Medical regulators and physician groups have previously argued that prescribing decisions can involve factors that might not be fully captured through questionnaires or automated assessments, including underlying health conditions, medication interactions, and evolving symptoms.
During the debate over Utah’s earlier Doctronic pilot, members of the Utah Medical Licensing Board stressed that prescription decisions require reassessment and clinical judgment by licensed practitioners and warned against reducing those decisions to an automated process.
How the AI Prescription System Works
According to the company’s launch announcement, once they’ve downloaded the Nolla Derm app, patients will then need to verify their identity, provide informed consent, complete a quick medical questionnaire, and submit a five-angle facial scan through the app.
The AI then analyzes this information and generates a personalized treatment plan within about 10 to 15 minutes.
If the patient qualifies, the system will issue an initial prescription that can be filled through a pharmacy or delivered to the patient’s home.
The company stresses that the AI isn’t a free-form, standalone chatbot that can make up treatments by itself, like ChatGPT, for example. It can only choose from a limited menu of acne treatments that doctors have already approved.
In more severe or complex cases, patients are referred to a physician or in-person care.
Regulators have also required extensive oversight. For the first 100 patients, every single AI-generated prescription must be independently approved by two licensed physicians before reaching patients.
This strict oversight will gradually decrease if safety benchmarks are met, including a requirement for at least 95 percent agreement between physicians and the AI’s recommendations and that there are no serious adverse issues.
Are AI Prescriptions a Sign of Things To Come?
The Nolla Health pilot is making headlines because it involves issuing initial prescriptions, rather than just refilling existing ones; Back in January, Utah became the first state to allow AI systems to renew certain existing prescriptions for chronic conditions.
This launch is, therefore, one of the clearest tests of whether AI can safely take on parts of clinical decision-making that have traditionally required direct involvement from doctors.
If the pilot meets its safety targets, it could provide a model for similar programs in other states and for other low-risk conditions where treatment follows well-established protocols.
For now, however, the initiative remains narrowly focused. The authorization applies only in Utah, only to adults, and only to a limited range of acne treatments. But as regulators, hospitals and technology companies look for ways to address physician shortages and long wait times, the pilot may offer an early glimpse of how AI-assisted prescribing could become a larger part of American health care.
Newsweek has contacted Dr. Zaid Fadul, Nolla Health’s chief medical adviser and the physician overseeing the project, and the Utah Medical Licensing Board for comment and is awaiting responses.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and James Debens