The Wall Street Journal reported that the Utah medical board is concerned about a pilot project being conducted in Utah that allows an AI algorithm to renew prescriptions. The goal of the program is to increase access to care by boosting access to medications. Drugs are the most efficient way to treat illness. The American Medical Association, among others oppose using technology that could replace physicians with AI. The following is from WSJ:
It started with technology from the startup Doctronic. The state launched a project in January that will allow the service to renew prescriptions for patients. The hope is it will improve medication access.
Any Utah adult can log in to get a refill on cholesterol medications or antidepressants, among other prescriptions. When fully implemented, the project will break new ground by letting an artificial-intelligence product, acting on its own, perform this job typically done by physicians.
The Utah medical licensing board members signed a letter opposing the pilot project citing the usual reasons (it’s not safe, it didn’t go to four years of medical school and three years of residency. The FDA has not approved it as a medical device. We don’t want the competition). The Utah project has various safeguards. Some prescriptions are moved to a doctor to approve and those that doctors question are reviewed by a second doctor.
According to Doctronic results released by the state last month, the AI system approved 72% of the renewal requests, escalating the rest to a doctor because of issues such as necessary lab tests. For the prescriptions renewed by AI, reviewing doctors concurred 91% of the time, with the other 9% saying more information was needed. A second doctor looked at those cases. In the end, 3% of the AI approvals were rejected by both physician reviewers.
The Utah medical board has no authority over the project, although state officials plan to consult with the board. Interestingly several members of the Utah medical board spoke to WSJ raising concerns but were always careful to say they were not speaking for the board itself. The American Medical Association (the group that brought us the physician shortage) opposes any efforts to use AI as a physician labor saving mechanism:
“It’s really a concern about a slippery slope. Do we start here with prescriptions, then all of a sudden, is it going to lead to diagnostic tests?” said John Whyte, chief executive of the AMA.
Yes, we can certainly hope so. AI is already being used to read diagnostic scans, assisting radiologists and in many cases outperforming them. Whyte continued:
“Medical decisions are complicated, they’re nuanced, and it’s the fundamental component of the physician-patient relationship.”
The software being used in Utah is made by Doctronic, a New York based company. Its clinical guidelines were created by the medical doctors and actual doctors supervise the output and are from the appropriate specialties:
“There’s a significant amount of medicine that is evidence-based, it’s rules-based, it’s algorithmic,” said Adam Oskowitz, a vascular surgeon who is Doctronic’s co-chief executive. “AI systems are very good at following those regulations.”
Battle lines are being drawn state-by-state.
The debate over AI doctors extends far beyond Utah’s borders. New York lawmakers are weighing a bill that would block chatbots from acting like licensed physicians, while Delaware passed a law banning AI technology from being licensed as a doctor or nurse.
On the other side, legislators in Iowa and Idaho proposed bills this spring that would create new clinical licenses for autonomous AI services.
AI is being integrated into physician practices, including transcribing notes from the exam itself. AI provides a lot of research behind physicians’ diagnosis. Doctors increasingly use AI to diagnose difficult cases. AI is used to read X-rays, mammograms, and diagnostic images. Disagreements over pilot projects using AI to practice medicine, such as those in Utah, are mostly about turf guarding. Consumers should be the ones who decide what they are willing to patronize (MDs, DOs, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, AI chatbots). Public policy should make sure it is patients who benefit, not the status quo.
Read more at WSJ: Utah Is Testing Out AI Doctors—And Actual Doctors Aren’t Happy About It