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STANAG 2517
Military health services and defence organisations building or operating a national telemedicine capability under a NATO nation's tasking or contract
STANAG 2517 is NATO's agreement committing member nations to implement AMedP-5.3, the guidance and minimum requirements for interoperable military telemedicine; it binds nations, not suppliers, directly.
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.
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.
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 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).
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.
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.
STANAG 2517 itself gives a health services organisation nothing to implement in software: it is an agreement between nations, and the actual telemedicine requirements sit in AMedP-5.3. Where ComplyTrain fits is the paperwork trail behind whatever role a specific tasking or contract actually assigns once those requirements are in use: documented procedures for how a telemedicine capability is planned, operated and re-evaluated, training records showing the people delivering or supporting it know the procedure and their part in it, and the audit trail an assessor or a customer's quality representative would ask for when a telemedicine commitment is questioned.
ComplyTrain does not build or operate a telemedicine system, define the telemedicine requirements themselves, or determine which requirements a specific tasking requires - that is set by the contract, the customer's quality clause and AMedP-5.3, not by this page. Our standards explorer shows what else sits alongside STANAG 2517 - if you are weighing up what a tasking or tender actually requires, we're glad to talk it through.
Tell us how you need to work with STANAG 2517 and what you need from it. We will come back to you about what ComplyTrain can do.
Thank you. Your list is on its way to your inbox, and we will come back to you on what working with these standards in ComplyTrain involves, usually within one business day.
Not on its own. A STANAG binds a nation once that nation has ratified and implemented it, and it reaches a health services organisation only when a specific tasking or contract invokes the telemedicine requirements that implementation puts in place. Whether it applies to a given programme is a question for the contract, not for this page.
STANAG 2517 is the cover agreement: it commits nations to implement AMedP-5.3 but contains no telemedicine requirements itself. AMedP-5.3, Edition B is the Allied Medical Publication that sets out the guidance and minimum requirements for interoperable military telemedicine.
No. STANAG 2517 describes no certification or accreditation scheme. Its only stated check is a periodic review of the agreement itself, in accordance with AAP-03. NATO does not certify organisations, or national telemedicine systems, against a STANAG.
Edition 6, promulgated 23 April 2025. It supersedes Edition 5, dated 23 November 2018.
Compared with Edition 5, this edition provides guidelines to ensure interoperability in multinational NATO operations regardless of their type and scale, identifies and highlights definitions of telemedicine and telehealth and the benefits of using telemedicine, elaborates the requirements to achieve interoperability, and reflects a transition in terminology from telemedicine to telehealth.
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