THE state of Utah in the US has announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with Doctronic, the AI-native health platform, to give patients with chronic conditions a faster, automated way to renew medications.
Automating routine prescription renewals - which account for around 80% of medication activity - is seen by the state as a way to ease pressure on providers while lowering costs for patients.
Medication non-compliance is one of the largest drivers of preventable health outcomes and avoidable medical spending, and it is hoped that cheaper, more convenient renewals will improve adherence and ultimately improve outcomes for millions of people managing chronic conditions.
The program covers 190 common medicines used for managing chronic disease, with certain drugs off limits, including pain management medicines, ADHD drugs and injectables.
Pharmacists can process renewals more efficiently, and physicians can focus on higher-impact care, according to the Utah Department of Commerce which is responsible for the initiative.
The pilot is tracking medication refill timeliness and adherence, patient access and satisfaction, safety outcomes, workflow efficiency, and cost impacts, with findings to be shared publicly to inform future state and federal AI policy.
"This is a major milestone to demonstrate how AI can improve access to care and health outcomes," said Matt Pavelle, co-CEO of Doctronic.
"This partnership with Utah enables patients, pharmacists, and physicians to work together more efficiently, with measurable results that benefit the entire healthcare system.
"We hope other states follow Utah's lead," he concluded.
Pharmacists commenting on social media have questioned the need to have AI renew prescriptions.
"This is a complicated and unnecessary solution to a legitimate problem - the pharmacists requesting the refills are already qualified and more than capable of just renewing the scripts themselves," a pharmacist commented on LinkedIn.
"Tbh it's insulting professionally that the state trusts a computer more than me," said another.
Other pharmacists saw potential for collaboration.
"The real opportunity may be using AI to augment pharmacists' renewal decisions (screening, flagging risks, workflow automation), rather than positioning AI as the decision-maker itself," one suggested.
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