On October 7, Utah healthcare startup Nolla Health launched a pilot project aimed at using artificial intelligence to independently prescribe medications. The project focuses on the fields of skin care and acne treatment, and users only need to pay a $5 monthly subscription fee to scan their face through a mobile app and fill out a medical history form.
After analyzing facial images, the AI software generates an acne severity score and, when eligibility criteria are met, directly issues a treatment prescription from 8 approved plans. This move breaks the traditional boundary in which artificial intelligence previously served only as an auxiliary diagnostic tool, taking the lead in attempting to grant AI software a certain degree of independent prescribing authority.
This one-year pilot project is carried out under the coordination and guidance of the Utah Department of Commerce's Office of AI Policy and the medical licensing board, adopting a gradual safety regulation strategy. In the initial first phase, the first 100 AI prescriptions must be reviewed by a licensed physician before being sent to a pharmacy; the second phase will allow the AI to fully independently treat 400 patients, with physicians only needing to conduct retrospective reviews weekly; in the third phase, physicians will only need to spot-check at least 10% of prescription decisions monthly.
The Utah Medical Association stated that the project does not require its direct approval, and that under the strict limitation to acne treatment, this kind of scenario-specific AI application is safe and controllable, but it absolutely does not endorse at this stage expanding independent prescribing authority to other complex medical fields.
Although the industry generally believes that AI's penetration into healthcare is irreversible, the traditional medical community remains cautious about its overly rapid advancement. Most studies to date show that physicians remain one of the professions hardest to fully replace with AI, and many experts call for keeping ultimate control over medical decisions in the hands of human physicians.
Nolla Health co-founder and CEO Luis Wenus stated that this technology demonstrates how AI can responsibly improve access to medical resources, helping patients receive personalized diagnosis and treatment within minutes. As large models and computer vision become deeply integrated into specialty care, Utah's pilot attempt provides a replicable regulatory and implementation template for AI-empowered primary healthcare, and also signals that lightweight specialty medical services are accelerating their transformation toward intelligence and standardization.