From skin scan to prescription: AI acne prescribing launches in Utah

Artificial intelligence (AI) can now write a patient's first prescription, at least for acne and at least in Utah, according to one company.

Nolla Health announced Oct. 5 that it has become the first organization in the country to receive regulatory approval for AI to issue initial prescriptions. Through its Nolla Derm app, the company's system will prescribe acne treatment to Utah residents 18 and older under physician oversight, without a waitlist or an office visit, starting at $4.99 a month. The service is available now.

"AI will matter most in health care when it helps people get care they otherwise would not receive," Nolla Health co-founder and CEO Luis Wenus said in a news release.

"With Nolla Derm, we are showing how AI can responsibly expand that access and help someone get personalized treatment in minutes instead of long waits or going without care altogether," he said.

Wenus and Zaid Fadul, M.D., chief medical adviser for Nolla Health and part of the physician team overseeing the Utah pilot, published a video on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to explain how the system works and why it would be safe for Utahns.

“We don’t want to remove doctors from medicine. The goal is to free up our time so we can focus on patients who actually need our attention,” Fadul said in the video.

Nolla Health said its approach differs from telehealth platforms that use AI only to collect information before handing patients off to clinicians. Its system is designed to independently issue initial prescriptions within tightly defined, physician-approved treatment protocols.

How the approval came about

The company said it secured regulatory approval after months of collaboration with the Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence. Nolla Health also met and worked directly with the Utah Medical Board before launch so the board's feedback would be reflected in the final program, according to the release. The pilot went through multiple rounds of external review by practicing physicians, dermatologists, key stakeholders and members of Utah government before launch.

"The Nolla Health pilot program represents a significant step forward in leveraging AI to improve health care access for Utahns, while maintaining rigorous oversight and safety," Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy Director Zach Boyd said in the news release.

"Our Office facilitates innovative AI solutions while ensuring that public health and patient safety remain paramount," Boyd said.

Related coverage: When will human physicians start dragging down AI in health care?

How it works

Eligible Utah residents download the Nolla Derm app and opt into the program. After completing an informed consent process, a 10- to 15-minute intake questionnaire and a face scan, patients receive a personalized treatment plan and prescription through the app within minutes.

If the AI cannot confidently select a treatment, the patient is directed to a licensed physician rather than receiving an uncertain recommendation, the company said.

Patients get their medication by home delivery or pharmacy pickup. Daily skin scans track their progress, and treatment plans are updated monthly based on how each patient responds. Patients can message a licensed physician through the app at any time, and the company said they never speak with AI when they reach out for support.

Related coverage: Six physician groups push back on claims that AI is better informed than doctors

Physician oversight in three stages

Nolla Health said physician oversight is built into every stage of the program, with review scaling back as enrollment grows:

• Stage one (first 100 patients): A licensed physician reviews and approves every AI-generated prescription before it is sent to the patient.
• Stage two (first 500 patients): The AI issues prescriptions on its own, and a physician reviews them each day after they are issued.
• Stage three: A physician reviews a sample of prescriptions once a week after they are issued.

The system cannot write open-ended prescriptions or improvise treatments, according to the company. It can only choose among pre-approved treatment pathways, using structured clinical data and analysis of the facial scan.

"People are right to worry about AI in medicine that nobody can control. This program was built to be the opposite," Fadul said in the news release. "The AI can't improvise. It can only choose from a short list of physician-approved topical treatments. The moment a patient falls outside those limits, it stops and hands them to a doctor.

"The real test for AI in health care isn't how smart it is. It's whether someone other than the company can shut it off," he said. "In Utah, the state can, and physicians can — that's the standard every AI in medicine should meet."

The company said licensed clinicians agree with the AI's treatment recommendations in more than 96% of real-world cases. The remaining cases involved minor adjustments, such as changing the strength of a topical medication, rather than fundamental disagreement with the prescribed treatment, according to Nolla Health.

Related coverage: Physicians have 5 responsibilities that AI will not replace: AMA

Why acne, and why Utah

Nolla Health described acne as a well-understood, low-risk condition with decades of clinical evidence behind it, making it the right starting point for AI prescribing.

The company pointed to gaps in access to dermatology care in Utah. According to the release:

• An estimated 100,000 Utah residents have active acne at any given time, but only 10% ever see a dermatologist.
• The average wait for a dermatology appointment in Utah is 61 days, nearly double the national median.
• Eleven Utah counties have no dermatologists.
• Patients who get an appointment can pay up to $300 per visit.

Untreated acne can progress to permanent scarring while patients wait, which drives treatment costs even higher, the company said. Nationally, more than 80% of U.S. counties are considered health care deserts, affecting more than 120 million people, or about one in three Americans, according to the release.

Nolla Health said the pilot is designed to complement physicians, not replace them. By handling routine, low-acuity cases, meaning conditions that are less severe and less urgent, the program frees dermatologists to focus on complex, high-risk patients, including those at risk for skin cancer, the company said.

Company background

Nolla Health, which is headquartered in New York, launched in the United States in September 2025 in more than 40 states, backed by a $4.5 million pre-seed funding round led by venture capital firm General Catalyst, according to a company blog post at the time. In that post, the company described its acne treatment model as clinician-reviewed treatment plans prescribed asynchronously, meaning clinicians reviewed cases without a live visit, with custom compounded medications shipped to patients' homes.

Before its U.S. expansion, the company said it treated more than 50,000 patients in Norway in six months through its acne treatment and skin cancer screening apps.

The Nolla Derm app has now been downloaded by more than 175,000 people across 44 states, according to the company. The company has described its acne app as the first in a planned suite of AI-powered health care products.