A bireme is an ancient oared warship (galley) with two decks of oars, probably invented by the Phoenicians. Long vessels built for military purposes had relatively high speed, meticulous construction, strength, and depending on the number of rows of oars, were called uniremes, biremes, triremes, quadriremes, etc.

The Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information or BIREME was founded in Brazil in 1967 as the Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (Regional Library of Medicine, hence the acronym), a specialized center of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) / World Health Organization (WHO).