{"id":872419,"date":"2026-10-06T05:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T05:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/872419\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T05:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T05:10:08","slug":"utah-pilots-ai-only-examination-and-prescription-process-for-certain-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/872419\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah Pilots AI-Only Examination and Prescription Process for Certain Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predictions that highly skilled jobs in medicine would simply be automated with AI, sometimes articulated by luminaries like Geoffrey Hinton, haven\u2019t panned out so far<\/a>. Just picturing what it would theoretically be like to be examined by an AI doctor made the AI-enabled enshittification of healthcare seem like a distant danger at the absolute worst. But a new pilot program in Utah might clear away some of the fog around this concept, and make visits to Dr. Slop feel one step closer to reality.<\/p>\n

For now it\u2019s just a one-year program, according to a Monday story from Bloomberg<\/a>, and it\u2019s only for patients with mild-to-moderate<\/a> acne. Severe or complex cases will be referred to a human doctor.<\/p>\n

And this is the second big step Utah has taken toward automating some of the more transactional aspects of the American healthcare system. In January<\/a>, Utah rolled out another pilot program that allows patients to opt into an AI system in which\u2014after a doctor\u2019s validation of the initial action\u2014an AI can renew certain prescriptions. There\u2019s an ongoing backlash<\/a> to that program from doctors who believe it\u2019s unsafe.<\/p>\n

The new acne pilot, which started Monday, involves the use of an app called Nolla Derm from a company called Nolla Health. The app takes images of the patient\u2019s face, and asks them to then input their personal details and medical history. Nolla Derm analyzes their acne, the presence of excess skin oil, and gives them, according to Bloomberg, an \u201cacne severity score.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a press release<\/a>, the program will not be fully automated for a while, requiring a slow phase in, in which doctors are in the loop for the first 100 prescriptions. That will be followed by a \u201cphase two,\u201d for the first 500 prescriptions, in which the AI fully prescribes the medications, but doctors review those prescriptions retroactively. After that the prescriptions are fully automated, though a doctor will review a sample of cases afterward.<\/p>\n

The release quotes Nolla Health\u2019s Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Zaid Fadul as saying the AI \u201ccan\u2019t improvise,\u201d and that prescriptions include only a \u201cshort list of physician-approved topical treatments.\u201d The app costs $4.99 per month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Predictions that highly skilled jobs in medicine would simply be automated with AI, sometimes articulated by luminaries like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[181,97,252,253,16450,5970],"class_list":["post-872419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medical-technology","tag-medications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}