Integrated Solutions for NATO Forward Medical Evacuation: Experiences and Insights
NATO Science and Technology Organization Symposium (ICMCIS) organized by the Information Systems Technology (IST) Panel, IST-200RSY - the International Conference on Military Communications and Information Systems, Skopje, North Macedonia, 16 and 17 May 2023, publisher IEEE
Abstract: The term “medical evacuation” means accelerated transport of casualties from the point of injury, through several levels of Medical Treatment Facilities, to the country of residence. “Forward evacuation” denotes the first and most critical step, i.e., delivering the wounded to a field hospital. To enable medical evacuation in a coalition environment, its particular areas, including messages, processes, and architecture, are standardized by NATO. Also, several solutions supporting medical evacuation are emerging, including a reference implementation by NATO and various systems developed by individual countries. It seems, however, that the literature on the technical aspects of these solutions is scarce. Our goal is to at least partially fill this gap and discuss the requirements and challenges related to the implementation of integrated systems supporting (forward) medical evacuation. Our observations and requirements are drawn from both development work on the MEDICS1 project and experience from Poland’s missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. This paper was originally presented at the NATO Science and Technology Organization Symposium (ICMCIS) organized by the Information Systems Technology (IST) Panel, IST-200 RSY – the ICMCIS, held in Skopje, North Macedonia, 16-17 May 2023.
Keywords: Medical Evacuation, MEDEVAC, MIST, Patient Tracking Message (PTM), Patient Movement Request (PMR), Field Medical Card (FMC), APP-11.
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