Mar 2025
When therapists move to a new state, their ability to help patients shouldn’t disappear at the state line. Yet for years, that’s exactly what happened. Mental health counselors, occupational therapists, and speech pathologists faced a frustrating reality: start over with licensing in each new state, or stop serving patients who moved away.
At InspiringApps, we’ve been working to solve this challenge through Compact Connect, a platform transforming interstate licensing for healthcare practitioners. Our Software Engineering Lead, John Sandoval, was recently featured in Built In Colorado, discussing this innovative digital health solution.
What makes John uniquely qualified to tackle this healthcare challenge is his diverse technical background spanning critical systems across multiple industries. His portfolio includes developing 911 telecom infrastructure, building communication systems for NASA’s Artemis I spacecraft, and creating supply chain automation for children’s meal delivery in Colorado.
“These projects faced real-world challenges and required developing expertise across a wide variety of industries and technologies,“ John explained in the interview.
This cross-domain experience proved invaluable for Compact Connect, where our team needed to create secure connections between vastly different state licensing systems. This is not unlike ensuring critical communications between ground control and spacecraft, where failure simply isn’t an option.
The complexity of state-to-state licensing creates significant barriers to care. As John described:
“Prior to the compacts and Compact Connect, practitioners needed to be fully licensed in each state where they practice. That can be both expensive and time-consuming.“
Our team tackled several interconnected challenges:
The real achievement was making these complex technical solutions invisible to the end users. Practitioners don’t need to understand the intricate data exchanges happening behind the scenes—they just need to know they can now practice across state lines.
At InspiringApps, we believe the most meaningful technology centers on human needs. When asked what excites him about the project, John immediately highlighted the impact on military families:
“What’s very compelling to me is that military members and their spouses, often impacted by relocation, will be able to continue their practice or treatment without finding a new provider or going through months of costly approvals.“
Compact Connect enhances safety by tracking disciplinary actions across state lines, ensuring practitioners meet professional standards regardless of location. This dual focus reflects what matters most in healthcare technology: making care more accessible while maintaining the highest standards for patient safety.
Throughout 2025, our team is methodically working through the integration process with each participating state.
“We started onboarding compact member states. That will continue through 2025,“ John noted. “States have their own systems and processes that need to integrate with Compact Connect.“
Having previously built systems for FEMA and national fire services, our engineering team understands the delicate art of bringing diverse stakeholders together around a shared technical vision. Government technology projects notoriously struggle with consensus-building, but our approach emphasizes demonstrating tangible value:
“Demonstrating the value of what we’re implementing is an exciting opportunity. It sounds like a good challenge—and it is! We’ve got some outstanding people working on this project from many disciplines.“
To learn more about John’s approach to healthcare technology and the engineering behind Compact Connect, check out the full interview in Built In Colorado. You can also read our press release about the InspiringApps Compact Connect project.
John joined InspiringApps in 2015 and leads our software engineering initiatives. He brings extensive experience in mission-critical systems development, with nearly 13 years of prior experience developing enterprise web applications and leading data engineering efforts. John holds a BS in Management Information Systems from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Connect with John on LinkedIn.
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