This is your daily news rundown for Tuesday, April 28. In this edition:
- Top Utah medical officials want the state to suspend its new AI prescription refill program
- A bat in southwest Utah tested positive for rabies, the first this year
- Utah has a new license plate to celebrate the country's 250th anniversary
Utah’s AI prescription refill program is facing backlash from medical officials
The Utah Medical Licensing Board is calling for Utah to suspend its new program that uses AI for prescription refills.
The partnership with AI health platform Doctronic allows AI to refill prescriptions that were issued by a human doctor. It’s the first state-approved program of its kind in the nation.
However, the 11 doctors on the Utah Medical Licensing Board say they weren’t consulted or notified about the program until after it was live and available for use.
In a letter to Utah’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, the board said that overseeing prescription refills should be reserved for licensed medical practitioners for safety and clinical reasons, and that the AI program should thus be immediately suspended until further discussion can be conducted.
Other critics have also questioned the possibility of errors and misuse, especially after security researchers were able to easily trick Doctronic’s public chatbot. Notably, Utah operates the tool inside a regulatory sandbox with extra security measures.
Doctronic co-founder Matt Pavelle told Axios the program has defined safeguards and physician oversight of prescriptions in the first phase of the program.
Health officials confirmed the first rabid bat case of the year in Utah
A bat in Washington County tested positive for rabies — the first in the state this year.
The Southwest Utah Public Health Department confirmed the case on Monday.
Bats are the primary carrier of rabies in Utah, but the virus can transfer to humans from any infected animal.
Because of that, health officials say it’s important to avoid contact with any wildlife, and Utah law requires all pet dogs, cats, and ferrets to be immunized against rabies.
Rabies in humans is fatal almost 100% of the time, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, so anyone who’s had contact with a possibly rabid animal should contact their doctor immediately to get the necessary treatment.
You can learn more about how to spot and protect yourself from rabies on the Utah Department of Health and Human Services website.
Utah’s new license plate is celebrating the country’s 250th birthday
Utah has unveiled a new custom license plate to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States.
The America 250 plate was unveiled on Tuesday and features a deep blue background and a 1776 American flag in the corner and “America 250” across the bottom.
It will be available for purchase through the Utah DMV from June 1 to July 31.
