South Dakota-based Avera Health is hosting NATO officials who are looking at different methods for responding to global disasters.

NATO is looking for a tech-based solution for a project aiming to create multinational capacity capable of responding to major situations, disasters and civil emergencies, according to Romanian interior ministry official Raed Arafat, who’s heading the project at the organization.

As part of NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Program, representatives from the US, UK, France and Romania, among others, are visiting Avera’s telemedicine hub in Sioux Falls, while also checking demos of other telehealth solution providers.

“Right now when there’s a disaster most countries will send some sort of aid; the United States sends teams, Romania sends teams,” Donald Kosiak, the medical director for Avera’s telemedicine services, told AP. “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.”

NATO officials hope to test the new platform in a drill this September in the Ukraine before launching it in 2016 or 2017.

[Via: mHealthNews]