EpiNATO-2: Enhancing Situational Awareness and Overall Force Health Protection While Deployed in the Combined Joint NATO Environment: Describing the Identified 2016 Q Fever Outbreak in Kosovo Force (KFOR).

Abstract

EpiNATO-2 is the only interoperable health surveillance system that is defined in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) doctrine. It was first implemented in the Kosovo Force and European Union Training Mission Mali in 2013. EpiNATO-2 is mandated for use during all NATO operations. Its coverage has steadily increased and now includes all NATO Joint and Component Command Operations and several non-NATO operations. The system monitors morbidity predominately for Role 1 sites by using weekly reports from the medics and other medical providers. The reports for all sites in theater are sent to the Combined Joint Medical (CJMED), which consolidates and submits them to NATO Deployment Health Surveillance Capability (DHSC), the satellite branch of NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine (MILMED COE), for analysis and feedback. Although EpiNATO-2 will likely have a number of overlaps with most nations' disease and nonbattle injury trackers, a distinguishing characteristic is that it has specific categories for classifying more clinical activity. Sustaining the quality of data collection is paramount and achieved through contemporaneous analysis and feedback that are disseminated via CJMED to all providers. This enhances situational awareness about evolving trends in health issues across the deployed force and is intended to provide information for action and medical decision-making and force health protection assurance at the local and theater levels. The awareness imparted by this article can add to the Special Operations Forces (SOF) medics' tool kit to ensure success for the SOF medic and SOF community while deployed or collaborating with NATO and NATO partner nation militaries at any level in theater.