The Brooklyn Health Information Exchange (BHIX) was founded in 2005 as a not-for-profit regional health information organization (RHIO) devoted to facilitating patient-centric care and promoting improved healthcare quality, affordability, and outcomes for New Yorkers. At the time of BHIX’s merger with Healthix in 2013, BHIX stakeholders had grown to include seven hospitals, 17 long-term care, and home care providers, six health plans, five federally qualified health centers, and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
In 2009, BHIX engaged InterSystems and J2 to build a state-of-the-art health information exchange, based on HealthShare, utilizing a service-oriented architecture that implements and extends upon federal standards as defined by IHE and HITSP. Working directly with BHIX and its stakeholder organizations, we connected 50 facilities and provider practices throughout Brooklyn. J2 was also responsible for building the exchange’s identity management capabilities and EHR connectivity by integrating with third-party software such as Initiate, ActiveHealth, ChartMaxx, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, and Surescripts.
The work done by J2 enabled BHIX to provide a robust HIE network to its members, as well as a highly scalable services framework that supported growth and emerging standards. The joint team of BHIX, InterSystems, and J2 became extremely active at the forefront of HIT innovation not only within the State of New York but also at a national level:
- Chosen by the State of New York to design and develop a prototype of the SHIN-NY Big Bus
- Chosen by the State of New York to implement and publish the CHIxP reference architecture against which all other HIE vendors working on HEAL 5 projects must certify their software
- Chosen by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to be the only HIE in New York to implement, deploy, and test the federal NHIN enterprise reference architecture
In addition to our work on HealthShare, J2 assisted BHIX with special projects such as business intelligence, application development, and ongoing systems support—both directly and in collaboration with the New York eHealth Collaborative.
