NATO: "Stephan" health exercise underway in Rome

(To Greater Defense)
23/03/18

From 19 to 23 March, the School of Health, in collaboration with the Center of Excellence for Military Medicine (Med Mil CoE) of Budapest, carries out the third Italian edition of the Medeval course at the Caserma Artale della Cecchignola in favor of 25 students from 14 Nations (five positions reserved for the Italian Armed Forces).

The exercise Stephan it saw the use of about a hundred soldiers including health workers and attendants of the "Medeval" course who intervened as a training audience, the injured evacuation cell, health component of the Joint Operational Command (JOC).

This component develops the coordination and management of sanitary evacuations in the various operating theaters, i.e. a Rapid Deployable Outbreak Investigation Team (RDOIT), a team of health experts (mainly epidemiologists, hygienists and veterinarians), capable of quickly lining up to investigate the possible causes of a sudden deterioration in the health conditions of a contingent, an ambulance system and a Role1 plus facility (a field health facility).

Il Role1 plus it was supplied and deployed within the headquarters of the School of Health by the NATO Standardization and Procurement Agency (NSPA) of Taranto under the aegis of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).

The Italian-led Multinational Medical Joint Training Center (M2JTC) was recently built at the School of Health as part of the Multinational Medic Modular Unit (M3U) project of the European Defense Agency (EDA) and has achieved full operational capacity in September last year in Germany during the NATO exercise Vigorous Warrior 17. The conduct of the "Stephan" exercise was therefore an opportunity for practical activities aimed at the "Medeval" course and at the same time for the development of operational procedural and management documents of the Role1 plus NATO according to the directives given for this purpose directly by the Medical Advisor of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). At the end of the exercise, the project has been certified according to the NATO doctrine of the structure in the theaters of Operation.

Thanks to this synergy of events, the NATO exercise developed in a joint and combined environment. The participants of the "Medeval" course enthusiastically participated in the important training event characterized by a series of health activations. Among these, they were able to appreciate the monitoring system by means of cameras of the activities being assessed developed by M2JTC which allows to expand the training and validation potentials, simultaneously realizing savings on management costs with prolonged and remote monitoring. This system also operated in real time connection with the NATO Defense College from where visitors were able to witness the activities without their physical presence interfering with the operations.

The considerable organizational commitment undertaken and the concentration of operational resources ensured, aimed at guaranteeing the perfect functioning of a health facility that can be projected into operations abroad in hostile or non-permissive environments, demonstrates how both NATO and the Italian Armed Forces are particularly attentive to '' concrete application of prevention and treatment measures to protect the health integrity of all military personnel.