The state of Connecticut has discarded a computer program it spent $20 million building for its health information exchange, the Connecticut Health I-Team reported Aug. 14.
The University of Connecticut had been tapped to develop the software for Connie, the health data exchange, but in 2021 the state's Office of Health Strategy ended the funding and nixed the system, the website reported. The reasons are unclear, but some of the 20 people who lost their jobs in the move filed a complaint last year asking state auditors to investigate.
Connie instead uses software developed for Maryland's health information network that costs about $1 million annually, according to the Mirror story.
"They basically threw it away," Christopher Gracia, a former deputy director with the now defunct UConn Analytics and Information Management Solutions, told the news outlet. "It hurts because we put a lot of time and money into it for the state. It hurts that the citizens, the residents of the state, aren’t going to experience what they could have had."