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Comment by throw904309 | Hacker News Reader

why? spending $100 for doctor visit, to get $2 prescription is idiocracy.

Isotretinoin is a common acne medication and a bit of a breakthrough that also has potentially serious side effects. My take is more that if the medication is safe enough to be given out by an AI then maybe it should just be over the counter.

OTC is a reasonable argument to explore, at least.

I don't think it's automatically true though. In the case of acne medication, I remember there's a well-known one that carries the very real caveat that it'll kill or severely deform the baby if you're pregnant. When you consider the old classic line "Think of the average person. Half of the people are dumber than that" I don't feel comfortable with that medication sitting on the shelf next to the Clearasil, where a busy person will just grab it because they heard it was super effective, or because the other types were out of stock.

The AI inference involved there no doubt costs pennies; so having it screen the patient to ensure that she understands the risks and has taken a pregnancy test recently if unsure, seems like a "why not" kind of thing.

Now, if some AI-healthcare company is capturing 90% of the money saved by not having doctors do this, then it would be barely worth it.

There's the "in between" of "behind the pharmacy counter", requires you to interact with a tech if not a pharmacist to ask/answer some questions before dispensing, but at point of sale.

That type of screening doesn't require AI. It would just be a form with a bunch of if/else statements.

According to [0], Nolla won't prescribe Isotretinoin, which makes sense because of the side effects.

[0] - https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/nolla-health-launches-ut...

Maybe the doctor does not resell your data to Facebook so you get anti-acne cream ads in perpetuity.

Presumably an AI system would still be held accountable to HIPAA laws.

> A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.

unless frontier models (or whatever employs in medicine) are being kind enough to absorb the lawsuits here, I don't see how this ends well.

I doubt they're going to give the acne medication recommender agent avenues to violate HIPAA.

The accountability is with the company owners. Like with every healthcare startup, there's no reason to assume they'll love being sued or fined so much that they will bake violating HIPAA into their business plan.

You are right. I just think you overestimate the competence of leadership in such companies and underestimate the level of corruption in Utah.

They have lawsuits built into this, and either by hubris or bribes believe this is the most profitable route. "Its just acne, what could possibly go wrong?"

You'd think of all people who'd respect specialists, it'd be the ones in tech who get paid $100 to center a div.

The "I know you are but what am I" debate strategy is always a solid choice.

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