BHIE

BHIE is an acronym for Bidirectional Health Information Exchange, a series of communications protocols developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is used to exchange healthcare information between Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare facilities nationwide and between VA healthcare facilities and Department of Defense healthcare facilities.

It is one of the most widely used healthcare data exchange systems in routine healthcare use, and is used to facilitate healthcare data exchange associated with a patient's medical record.

Types of data managed
Outpatient pharmacy data, allergy data, patient identification correlation, laboratory result data (including surgical pathology reports, cytology and microbiology data, chemistry and hematology data), lab orders data, and radiology reports are examples of the types of healthcare data that are exchanged using BHIE.

Integration with Electronic Health Record systems
BHIE is currently integrated into the VistA EMR (electronic medical record) system used nationwide in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. This integration is able to provide increased efficiency in healthcare for veterans. Veterans Hospitals have regional specialized capabilities, and veterans often travel to receive specialized care. Their VistA medical records are able to be trasmitted in their entirety using this protocol.

History
BHIE was developed in a stepwise fashion. It was initially termed the CHCS-VistA DSI.

In March 2006, the usage of BHIE across the country was outlined before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

Initially, the Department of Defense was able to transfer healthcare data in a one-way fashion to VA hospitals and healthcare facilities using FHIE (Federal Health Information Exchange). In the next phase, bidirectional information sharing became desirable. To facilitate data exchange between the incompatible electronic medical record systems of the Department of Defense and VA facilities, an interface called CHDR was developed. This allowed BHIE to be used.