One Step Closer: AI Prescribing Drugs

Per the WSJ, the FDA just cleared UpDoc, software that adjusts medication doses between doctor visits — starting with insulin for Type 2 diabetes. The AI calls or messages patients, reads their glucose data, and changes the dose within limits the patient's doctor sets. It can also order followup labs. Every decision goes into the chart. UpDoc has $18M in seed funding (S32, Polaris, the American Diabetes Association's innovation fund, Mayo Clinic, and Eli Lilly) and pilots lined up at Cleveland Clinic, Allegheny Health Network (AHN), and UCSF.

This is close to what Doctronic has been doing in Utah — though Doctronic handles refills and UpDoc adjusts doses, orders the confirming lab, and documents the visit, all without an appointment.

In both, AI is doing what only a licensed prescriber used to., and in both cases it is — for the moment — happening inside the healthcare system. Sustaining innovation for the healthcare system, potentially disruptive for the medical profession.

Of course, if the pilots go well, it’s not hard to imagine future AI systems prescribing medications rather than adjusting or renewing them. And that won’t improve the healthcare system OR the medical profession, it will render both less relevant to our health.