Following the events of Hurricane Sandy, the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center -- or NH-ISAC -- launched an emergency response system that aims to help protect critical health care infrastructure and information systems during a natural disaster or cyberattack, Healthcare IT News reports.
NH-ISAC -- based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida -- provides cyber intelligence and other services to support health information exchanges, electronic health record implementation and other health data initiatives at health care organizations.
Goals of the New System
Officials said the new National Healthcare and Public Health Cyber Response System will help health care organizations facing emergencies improve their:
- Situational awareness;
- Information sharing; and
- Incident response (McCann, Healthcare IT News, 11/1).
In addition, the new system would make emergency response protocols for dealing with health care infrastructure hazards accessible 24 hours per day, seven days per week (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 11/5).
NH-ISAC Seeks To Help Organizations Affected by Hurricane
Officials encouraged facilities affected by Hurricane Sandy to contact NH-ISAC to share information about their situation and their needs. They also encouraged organizations to contact NH-ISAC if they could provide support or resources to facilities affected by the storm (Goodwin, Government Security News, 11/1).
Deborah Kobza -- executive director and CEO of NH-ISAC -- said that "NH-ISAC has issued a call out to organizations nationwide to be on stand-by to offer infrastructure, technology and security services and support" to facilities affected by the storm (Healthcare IT News, 11/1).