STANAG 2235
STANAG 2235 deployment health assessment agreement
Defence organisations administering pre- and post-deployment health assessments whose parent nation's directive or contract invokes STANAG 2235 or the AMedP-4.8 publication it covers
STANAG 2235 is NATO's ratification agreement committing member nations to implement AMedP-4.8, Edition A, the Allied Medical Publication on pre- and post-deployment health assessments.
- Edition
- 3
- Published
- 2013-12-18
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.
How we help
STANAG 2235's substance, what a pre- or post-deployment health assessment covers and how it is administered, is carried out by national medical services against AMedP-4.8, not in a compliance platform: a medical service applies whatever AMedP-4.8 sets out, and a quality or personnel department retains the records that prove assessments were scheduled, completed and tracked against the current edition of the publication.
What ComplyTrain does for that kind of work generally is give a defence organisation one auditable place to hold the procedures for administering a pre- and post-deployment health assessment programme, the training records for the personnel who run it, and the evidence trail - non-conformances, corrective actions, document control - that a national authority or a customer's quality representative will ask to see.
ComplyTrain does not conduct a health assessment, hold clinical records, or decide which edition of AMedP-4.8 a unit has adopted. That is medical and command work, carried out against the publication itself and whatever national or service directive applies.
Which STANAGs and Allied Publications actually apply to a given unit or contract is set by the customer's quality clause and national guidance, not by us. Browse the explorer to see what sits alongside STANAG 2235 and AMedP-4.8, and talk to us about the evidence trail once you know which ones are in your contract.
Questions
Is STANAG 2235 mandatory?
Only where a nation has agreed to it, and it reaches a unit or a supplier only where a national directive or contract invokes AMedP-4.8. Partner nations are only "invited to adopt this STANAG" rather than bound to it.
What is the difference between STANAG 2235 and AMedP-4.8?
STANAG 2235 is the NATO agreement covering the publication; AMedP-4.8, Edition A is the Allied Medical Publication that sets out what pre- and post-deployment health assessments actually cover and how they are conducted. Agreeing to STANAG 2235 is how a nation commits to implement AMedP-4.8.
Was STANAG 2235 ratified in the usual way?
No. The letter of promulgation records that this edition 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.
Can a company be certified to STANAG 2235?
No. STANAG 2235 describes nations agreeing to the STANAG and reporting implementation details to NATO, recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database. It describes no certification or audit scheme for a supplier or a unit.
How often is STANAG 2235 reviewed?
The STANAG "is to be reviewed at least once every three years", with the result recorded in the NSDD. This edition, Edition 3, was promulgated 18 December 2013 and supersedes Edition 2, dated 14 March 2012.
Who is the custodian of STANAG 2235?
Norway, held by its Force Health Protection Working Group, based with the Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Services. Nations or NATO bodies wanting to propose a change do so through a standardization proposal to the tasking authority, NATO's Military Committee Medical Standardization Board.