Utah allows Nolla Health app to issue AI-generated acne prescriptions

In short: Utah has approved a pilot program where Nolla Health’s app can scan a person’s face and have AI write an acne prescription.

What happened

Nolla Health, a healthcare startup, says people in Utah can now use its app to get a prescription for some acne treatments. A user scans their face with their phone camera, and the app’s AI, meaning software that tries to make decisions from patterns, estimates how severe the acne is and selects a treatment.

This is a pilot program, which is a limited test before a wider rollout. Nolla Health says two physicians will approve every AI-written prescription for the first 100 patients. After that, doctors will start reviewing prescriptions only after they are issued for up to 500 patients. Later, doctors will review at least 10 percent of prescriptions each month, plus every case that involves an escalation or a side effect.

The service costs $4.99 per month. It is limited to Utah residents who are 18 or older and have mild to moderate acne. Nolla Health says it will send users to a physician if the system cannot confidently choose a treatment. Bloomberg reports the AI can prescribe eight different skin treatments.

Nolla Health says this differs from other Utah pilots because it can write an initial prescription, not just renew an existing one.

Why it matters

For patients, this could make it faster and easier to get treatment for routine acne, more like ordering a standard refill than scheduling a full appointment. It also raises a basic question regulators and patients will watch closely, which is how much medical decision-making can be safely delegated to software, and how doctor review is handled as the program scales.

Source: The Verge AI