The eCare telemedicine hub developed by Avera Health is serving as a model for a multinational telemedicine platform being deployed by NATO.

The 28-national North Atlantic Treaty Organization is ready to deploy suitcase-sized kits to emergency scenes or combat zones worldwide, it announced recently. They can be used by the military or civilian paramedics and connect them with medical specialists located in different parts of the world.

Those specialists can remotely assess patients, diagnose them and provide real-time recommendations.

“In the event of a disaster, telemedicine helps eliminate distance barriers and improves access to medical services that would often not be available on the ground, even in remote areas,” said Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, NATO assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges.

NATO worked with Avera in Sioux Falls to develop the kit and visited its telemedicine hub in 2015.

Donald Kosiak, who was then medical director for Avera’s eCare services and medical chairman of the NATO program, spoke to The Associated Press about the potential of the program during the visit.

“When you send a team to let’s say a hurricane or a tsunami in Japan, you have to be able to feed them, and water them, and clothe them, and take care of all their needs on top of allowing them to do medical care,” Kosiak said. “(With telemedicine) you still send people, but instead of needing to send 30 people maybe you send 12.”