According to AP/Modern Healthcare, NATO officials are looking to create a multinational telemedicine platform that can be launched to provide medical care during natural or man-made disasters when immediate medical access is not readily available.
The project also aims to leverage telemedicine tools to reduce the amount of resources volunteers who are deployed in emergency situations need on the ground (AP/Modern Healthcare, 6/23).
This week’s visit, which was hosted by Avera Health’s telemedicine center in Sioux Falls, S.D., included NATO representatives from several countries, including:
- France;
- United Kingdom;
- U.S.; and
- Romania.
According to mHealthNews, Avera Health’s telemedicine platform has been praised for delivering health care to remote areas across the Midwest and West (Wicklund, mHealthNews, 6/23).
Donald Kosiak, Avera’s telemedicine services medical director who is involved with the NATO project, said, “Right now when there’s a disaster most countries will send some sort of aid; United States sends teams, Romania sends teams. What we are trying to say is, when you send those teams, could we embed telemedicine into those teams? Those teams can then use that technology to reach back to not only experts in their own country but experts around the globe” (AP/Modern Healthcare).
Officials plan to test the platform in Ukraine in September (mHealthNews, 6/23). A second drill is scheduled for 2016, and officials hope to launch the system by 2017 (AP/Modern Healthcare).
Date: June 24, 2015