Brooklyn Health Information Exchange
Builds on Its Success

Advance for Health Information Executives
October 28, 2009

While some states are struggling with creating a framework for health information exchange, others, like New York, are developing collaborative efforts within regions of their respective borders. A number of regional health information exchange efforts are underway, with work being done at the state level to form the State Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY). And in the borough of Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange (BHIX) has successfully started exchanging health information.

According to BHIX's executive director Irene Koch, two hospitals, four nursing homes, three home care entities and two payers provided initial support for the BHIX project. "We have certainly grown since then, but the exchange was intended to facilitate communications of information across the continuum of care. The original stakeholders reflect that principle, having clinicians at every point of transfer of care with the patient," she said.

The original phase of the exchange is occurring with and between users and data sources in Brooklyn, but the organizations’ expanded membership now includes additional providers and payers in other boroughs within New York City. "We are also actively involved with the work of SHIN-NY, and by working collaboratively with other projects and organizations in the state and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, we are looking to push forward with the rollout of SHIN-NY. BHIX will be a core participant in that effort," she said.

"In our expansion phase, we assessed what we believed we were going to need to form a solid infrastructure that would grow and change over time as the protocols and services related to health information exchange matured," Koch noted. "For our expansion phase, we decided to change our infrastructure, and we are migrating from our initial platform to the InterSystems infrastructure that will be based on the company's HealthShare technology; allowing us to deliver the technology in a much more protocol-focused and flexible manner."

BHIX, as part of the developing New York health information network, has been a model for other states, municipalities and health care entities thinking about and deploying health information exchanges. Many others are watching what BHIX and the entire State of New York are doing in terms of health information exchange.

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