TL;DRUtah has become the first US state to let an AI chatbot, Doctronic, renew prescriptions without a doctor, via a regulatory sandbox that waives licensing laws. The state’s medical licensing board, blindsided by the January launch, called in April for the pilot to be halted over safety risks, but the state refused. The case exposes a federal-state regulatory vacuum around AI in medicine.
Utah has quietly become the first US state to let an AI chatbot renew prescriptions without a doctor, according to the Associated Press. The programme, run by a company called Doctronic, launched in January and has set off a fierce medical debate.
Residents can skip the doctor’s office and refill prescriptions online through the chatbot. It asks about their medication and history, checks a national pharmacy database, and either renews the script or escalates to a human doctor.
The launch was possible only through a “regulatory sandbox” that lets Utah officials waive laws for promising AI. State and federal rules otherwise restrict prescribing to licensed medical professionals.
“We have crossed a threshold in terms of giving something that is not human a medical license, whether or not we want to call it that,” the University of Pennsylvania’s Dr Eric Bressman told the AP. He and others say they are not opposed to AI prescribing, but want it held to standards as rigorous as those for human doctors.
