Utah regulators announced a plan to let an AI product evaluate patients for acne treatment and write new prescriptions without prior human review. The pilot, run by startup Nolla Health, will use a structured intake and skin photos to assess mild-to-moderate acne and may select from a list of low-risk drugs. In the first phase, a licensed clinician will sign off on prescriptions, but Nolla could eventually prescribe without that oversight.
The move is part of Utah's expanded "AI sandbox" program, which lets the state's Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy waive regulations for supervised AI testing. Responding to critics, the state will now require third-party audits of company claims. Nolla, which raised $4.5 million from investors including General Catalyst, aims to use AI to direct treatment for a range of conditions.
This is the first reported expansion of the sandbox to include autonomous prescribing, though the source does not detail other new pilots. The audit requirement appears to be a direct response to earlier concerns about the program's oversight.