The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) and the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (NH-ISAC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on initiatives supporting prevention and risk mitigation for HIPAA breaches, incidents and cybersecurity prevention, protection, response and recovery.

The number of HIPAA breaches and incidents continues to increase, with more than 750 breaches reported in 2015, exposing almost 178 million records.

Through this collaboration, the organizations will work to accelerate the adoption of secure, identity-validated health information exchange via the Direct standard, in support of Stage 2 Meaningful Use transitions of care and patient engagement, and for additional uses of Direct for secure and encrypted healthcare data and information exchanges.

"There is an urgent need to increase awareness and identify means of prevention for the seemingly endless string of headline-grabbing cyberattacks this past year. The unfortunate fact is that hacks have increasingly become a part of digital life—and no person or organization is immune," said Lee Barrett, executive director of EHNAC. "With the dedicated focus of our collaborative teams, NH-ISAC and EHNAC look to make great strides in effective awareness and prevention tactics to minimize the crippling impact of these cybersecurity attacks."

The organizations expect to produce educational materials, webinars and joint promotional opportunities including case studies, situational awareness intelligence, information sharing, sector and cross-sector impact analysis, incident response, as well as leading practice and workforce education.