STANAG 2517 telemedicine for mission support

What it is

STANAG 2517 is a NATO Standardization Agreement, currently Edition 6, promulgated 23 April 2025. It is not a technical specification. It is the agreement by which NATO nations commit to implement AMedP-5.3, Edition B, the Allied Medical Publication that sets out guidance and minimum requirements for interoperable military telemedicine. Its letter of promulgation describes the enclosed agreement as one "which has been ratified by member nations, as reflected in the NATO Standardization Documents Database (NSDD), is promulgated herewith." Read on its own, STANAG 2517 requires almost nothing of a supplier or a health service directly. Its obligations run to nations, and it reaches a military health organisation only once a nation has implemented it and a specific tasking or contract invokes the telemedicine requirements it commits to.

Who it binds, and how

STANAG 2517 binds nations rather than organisations. Under "Agreement," participating nations agree to implement AMedP-5.3, Edition B - a national commitment made by ratification, not a duty a supplier or a hospital signs up to by reading this document. Ratification and implementation are separate steps in how a STANAG works generally, and a nation can ratify one with reservations, though this document names none of its own. So "is STANAG 2517 mandatory" has no single answer: it depends on whether a given nation has ratified and implemented it, and, for a health service organisation, on whether a specific tasking or contract then invokes the telemedicine requirements that implementation puts in place.

What the agreement actually commits nations to

The stated aim is "to respond to the following interoperability requirements." To achieve interoperability of telemedicine in NATO operations, the requirements were grouped as "planning and organizational requirements, functional requirements, information and communication requirements, training and personnel requirements; evaluation, re-evaluation and risk-assessment requirements." Each nation is asked to analyze these, "particularly the procedural instructions and technical requirements," as a guide to developing its own deployable telemedicine capability, "to enable interoperability and the ability to transfer telemedicine (medical) data between nations and authorized partners when used." "The publication covered by this STANAG is implemented when national military telemedicine systems are developed according to the (minimum) requirements, addressed in this document." None of this is written as a duty on a supplier; it is a duty on the nation and on the national telemedicine systems that actually deliver and exchange the capability.

A cover agreement, not the telemedicine requirements themselves

A reader who only has STANAG 2517 in hand does not yet have the telemedicine requirements it points to. The actual substance - the definitions, the minimum requirements and how a capability is evaluated - sits in AMedP-5.3. Other related documents named alongside it are STANAG 5524 (NATO interoperability standards and profiles for non-NATO digital standards), STANAG 2562 (which covers AJMedP-5, allied joint doctrine for medical communications and information systems), STANAG 2231 (which covers AMedP-5.1, the patient data exchange format for common core information), STANAG 2228 (allied joint doctrine for medical support), STANAG 2230 (which covers AJP-4.6, allied joint doctrine for the joint logistic support group), STANAG 2034 (NATO standard procedures for mutual logistic assistance), STANAG 2132 (which covers AMedP-8.1, documentation for initial medical treatment and evacuation), and STANAG 2348 (which covers AMedP-8.2, the basic military medical record).

Reporting and review

Allies and NATO bodies report implementation details, and partner nations are invited to do the same, through the electronic reporting tool. The STANAG is reviewed in accordance with AAP-03, with the result recorded in the NSDD. The agreement is supervised by COMEDS, MCMedSB, MedStd, HIST. This is Edition 6, and it supersedes STANAG 2517, Edition 5, dated 23 November 2018.

What it does not cover

STANAG 2517 names no telemedicine technical specification, equipment requirement or clinical protocol of its own - that detail sits entirely in AMedP-5.3. It also names no assessment or certification scheme: the only stated check is that the STANAG itself is reviewed periodically, not that an organisation or a national telemedicine system is certified.

Standards it references

• STANAG 5524Background
• STANAG 2562Background
• AJMedP-5Background
• STANAG 2231Background
• AMedP-5.1Background
• STANAG 2228Background
• STANAG 2230Background
• AJP-4.6Background
• STANAG 2034Background
• STANAG 2132Background
• AMedP-8.1Background
• STANAG 2348Background
• AMedP-8.2Background