What it is
STANAG 2235 is the NATO Standardization Agreement covering pre- and post-deployment health assessments. This is Edition 3, promulgated 18 December 2013, superseding STANAG 2235, Edition 2, dated 14 March 2012.
A STANAG is not the specification
A STANAG is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement a standard, not the technical specification itself. STANAG 2235's own text is short and administrative: an aim, an interoperability requirement, and the ratification, implementation and review machinery. What a pre- or post-deployment health assessment actually covers, and how it is conducted, is set out in a separate publication, AMedP-4.8, Edition A, which the STANAG names as the standard participating nations "agree to implement the following standard." Anyone administering assessments against that publication needs AMedP-4.8's own text, not this cover agreement.
What it commits nations to
The stated aim is "to respond to the following interoperability requirements." The document explains the requirement itself: "to minimize health problems during a NATO mission, a pre-deployment health assessment of deploying personnel is essential," and after a mission, a post-deployment health assessment matters "for identifying possible health problems and/or exposures which could potentially result in post-deployment health problems." This STANAG names the mechanism only; it does not itself set out what either assessment consists of, which AMedP-4.8 covers in full. The document's Other Related Documents entry names none.
Who it binds, and how
STANAG 2235 binds nations, not clinicians, units or suppliers directly. It is "effective upon receipt and ready to be used by the implementing nations and NATO bodies." Partner nations are only "invited to adopt this STANAG" rather than being bound to it. This edition carries an unusual note on how it came into force: rather than following the standard route described in the same letter, where an agreement "has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Document Database (NSDD)," this STANAG and its related Allied publication "have been declassified and are promulgated without ratification process," under NSA(MED)1289(2013)1/MEDSB dated 28 October 2013. Nations are separately invited to examine their own ratification and advise NATO of their implementation intentions, with national decisions recorded in the NSDD. Implementation follows once a nation has issued the orders or instructions needed to put the agreement into effect, and nations then "report on their effective implementation of the STANAG using the form in Annex H to AAP-03(J)"; partner nations report adoption "using the form in Annex G to AAP-03(J)".
Review and related documents
This STANAG "is to be reviewed at least once every three years", with the result recorded in the NSDD, and nations or NATO bodies "may propose changes, at any time, through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority (TA)". Oversight sits with NATO's Military Committee Medical Standardization Board and its Medical Standardization Working Group; the custodian is Norway, held by its Force Health Protection Working Group, based with the Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Services.
How it's evaluated
STANAG 2235 describes no certification scheme and no audit. What it describes is nations reporting their ratification and implementation status to NATO, and providing their actual implementation details to the NSA. Nobody is "STANAG 2235 certified", and the document never uses that language. Where a nation's own assessment practice does get checked in practice, the assessor and the evidence required are set by the applicable national authority and by AMedP-4.8, not by this STANAG.
Standards it references
STANAG 2235 covers AMedP-4.8, the Allied Medical Publication that carries the assessments' substance; that is where it lives, not here. Implementation and adoption reporting runs under AAP-03, using its Annex H and Annex G forms.