(NewsNation) — The co-founder of Doctronic believes the state of Utah is being “forward-thinking” by using the artificial intelligence-based platform to help patients with prescription refills.
“I think this is a big deal because it’s the first time that a state has said, ‘We’re going to allow an AI to make a clinical decision,’” Dr. Adam Oskowitz told “The Hill” on Tuesday. “I think they’re doing it in the right way. First and foremost, they’re doing it in a safe way.”
Oskowitz’s Doctronic serves as a virtual doctor for patients, offering free, 24/7 access to personalized and practical health information.
Talking about its partnership with Doctronic, Utah officials said it’s “agreement marks the first state-approved program in the country that allows an AI system to legally participate in medical decision-making for prescription renewals.”
Oskowitz noted that his team built nearly a dozen guardrails within the system to reassure residents that it’s not just an AI chatbot.
“This is different than a product that you would use today,” he added. “It is vastly different than a ChatGPT or an Anthropic, in that we do checks on the background to make sure that things are safe. We check things like the dosage. We make sure that drug-drug interactions are accounted for. We make sure that the indication for the drug is appropriate. This is actually a next-generation product that uses the guardrails.”
Co-founder: Utah made sense for system as ‘practice for medicine’
Asked why Utah was the place to introduce Doctronic, Oskowitz acknowledged it felt right from a medical standpoint.
“This isn’t something that is a medical device,” said Oskowitz. “The practice of medicine is regulated at the state level. I believe, and our company believes, that this will actually play out at the state level.”
Okskowitz said Doctroic is in discussions with a handful of other states to bring the system. He expects “maybe a half a dozen other states to approve something like this in 2026.”
“Health care is the most booming job market right now in the United States,” Oskowitz said. “There’s never going to be enough supply to meet the demand.”
