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AMedP-1.6

AMedP-1.6 medical evaluation manual

Lead Nations and Troop Contributing Nations preparing a multinational medical unit for a NATO-commanded deployment

AMedP-1.6 is NATO's Medical Evaluation Manual, the toolbox a Multinational Evaluation Team uses to assess a nation's contributed medical module, unit or force component against agreed capability requirements.

Edition
B
Published
2025-07

What it is

What AMedP-1.6 covers

AMedP-1.6, the Medical Evaluation Manual, is the NATO Allied Medical Publication that gives a Multinational Evaluation Team (MET) the toolbox to assess whether a nation's contributed medical staff, module, unit or force component can deliver the capability that participating nations have agreed. Edition B, Version 1 was promulgated in July 2025, effective on receipt, and supersedes the previous Edition A, Version 2. It sits alongside two companion publications named in its opening chapter: AMedP-1.7, the Capability Matrix, and AMedP-1.8, the Skills Matrix. Together the three make up what the manual calls the Evaluation of NATO Medical Treatment Facilities: this document supplies the process and the reporting, while the other two supply the specific capability and skills content an evaluator's questions are built from.

This is not a document written for a general equipment manufacturer or software supplier. It speaks to the Lead Nation assembling a Multinational Medical Unit, the Troop Contributing Nations providing modules to it, the NATO Commander who requires the capability, and the evaluation team formed to assess it. It is covered by STANAG 2560, the agreement by which nations commit to use it.

The four levels of evaluation

The manual organises evaluation into four levels, moving from an individual up to a whole force. Level I looks at individual medical personnel and stays a national responsibility, before anyone transfers to a multinational unit. Level II does the same for a medical module, a self-contained package of personnel, equipment and procedures, and is also handled nationally. Level III is where the manual's own evaluation team gets involved: the assembled Multinational Medical Unit, evaluated under the Lead Nation's responsibility. Level IV covers the medical support system as a whole once units are integrated into a NATO-commanded force, under the Force Commander. A nation completing Level I and Level II evaluation on its own contribution is a precondition the manual assumes, not something the manual evaluates itself.

Who evaluates, and what it produces

A Multinational Evaluation Team does the assessing, formed by the Lead Nation before deployment or by the Commander after Transfer of Authority. It is built from a Lead Evaluator plus subject-matter experts drawn from the NATO Command Structure, the Lead Nation and Troop Contributing Nations, people with a stake in the capability rather than an independent outside body, and the manual requires every member to have completed the NATO Medical Evaluation Course and to keep that qualification current. The team works from a self-assessment the modules complete first, moves through an advisory visit to align expectations, and then conducts the formal evaluation itself.

What comes out is two reports rather than a single pass or fail mark. A First Impression Report goes to the unit's commander on site, written in the present tense so findings reach the people who can act on them immediately. A fuller Final Evaluation Report follows, sent to an agreed authority named in the tailored manual, typically the requesting nation, the Lead Nation's commander, or the NATO Command Structure, and covering the methodology used, the findings and the recommendations. Both feed a judgement of the capability that this page does not reduce to a grading scale; the manual keeps that detail for the evaluation team and the units it evaluates.

How certification actually works, and who it belongs to

AMedP-1.6 does describe a genuine certification step, and it is worth being precise about what it certifies. Its own aim clause states that "the subsequent certification is the official recognition that a staff, module, unit or force component can provide the defined capability agreed by nations." That is a capability contributed by a nation, a specific module, unit or force element, not a company or an organisation's management system. The manual gives the Lead Nation authority to assess and evaluate the unit before deployment, and hands the certification decision itself to the operational commander or the lead Joint Force Commander once the evaluation is complete.

That mechanism has more in common with a type certificate awarded to a specific aircraft, or a qualification awarded to an ammunition design, than with an accredited body certifying a company's quality management system. Nothing in AMedP-1.6 describes a scheme a compliance vendor, or any commercial organisation outside the deployed force, could be assessed against or hold.

What this page does not cover

Chapters 3 and 4 lay out a detailed sequence, self-assessment, an advisory visit, the formal evaluation, and fixed reporting deadlines, and Annexes E through AS then give one structured questionnaire per medical module, covering areas from command and control through surgery, laboratory services, pharmacy, mental health, CBRN medical support and mortuary affairs, each with its own supporting questions and reference standards. This page names what those annexes cover; it does not reproduce their questions, their evidence criteria or the timelines the manual sets. That operational and clinical detail belongs to the nation, the Lead Evaluator and the medical professionals actually running an evaluation, not to a summary written for procurement and compliance readers.

How we help

AMedP-1.6 governs a military evaluation process, not a management system a piece of software could implement. Deciding whether a medical module is capable, staffing it correctly, and running the NATO Medical Evaluation Course a team member needs are judgements and activities that happen inside the medical and military chain of command, not in a document platform.

Where evidencing this kind of readiness does look like familiar compliance work is in the paperwork a Lead Nation or Troop Contributing Nation assembles before a Multinational Evaluation Team arrives: current job descriptions and manning tables, training records showing personnel have completed required courses, published command-and-control arrangements, and the self-assessment record a module completes ahead of the formal visit. ComplyTrain holds that kind of evidence, procedures, controlled documents and training records, as an auditable trail, so a defence organisation has a clear record of what was in place and when, going into an evaluation.

ComplyTrain does not conduct a medical evaluation, assess clinical or operational capability, or take any part in the Multinational Evaluation Team, the self-assessment findings or the certification decision the manual describes; those stay with the nations, the evaluation team and the operational commander. Which evaluation level a given mission or exercise requires, and which other Allied Publications and STANAGs come with it, is set by the operational requirement, not by us. The standards explorer shows the other publications in the medical family, and we are glad to talk through how you would document readiness for this kind of evaluation.

Standards it references

Questions

Is AMedP-1.6 mandatory?

It binds NATO nations through STANAG 2560, the agreement recording their commitment to use it, and nations can ratify with reservations; several are recorded against this edition, narrowing the Role level or capability to which a nation applies the manual. It reaches a specific medical unit once that unit is tasked to a NATO-commanded operation or exercise, not as a standing obligation on a commercial supplier.

Can a company be "AMedP-1.6 certified"?

No. What AMedP-1.6 certifies is a staff, module, unit or force component that a nation has contributed, recognised by the operational commander or the lead Joint Force Commander as able to provide the agreed capability. That is closer to a type certificate for a specific aircraft than to an accredited body certifying a company's management system, and the manual names no scheme a commercial organisation could hold.

What is the difference between AMedP-1.6, AMedP-1.7 and AMedP-1.8?

AMedP-1.6 is this manual: the evaluation process, the evaluation team and the reporting. AMedP-1.7 is the Capability Matrix and AMedP-1.8 is the Skills Matrix, the two documents that supply the capability and skills content an evaluator's questions are built from. The manual's own aim clause describes all three together as the Evaluation of NATO Medical Treatment Facilities.

Does AMedP-1.6 set clinical standards of care?

No. It sets out who evaluates a medical capability, when, and what gets reported. The clinical and technical detail a module is actually assessed against sits in the module-specific annexes and the companion Capability and Skills Matrices, not as guidance this page reproduces.

What happens if an evaluation finds capability gaps?

The manual calls for identified gaps to be resolved, and where a risk is judged mission-essential, for a re-evaluation once mitigation has taken place. It sets fixed reporting deadlines for this cycle, which this page does not reproduce; a nation or unit working through an actual evaluation should read that detail from the manual itself, not from a summary.