Establishment of a NATO trauma registry – a joint project within the NATO framework

In order to deliver modern state of the art emergency care to wounded soldiers in international operations it is necessary to establish a joint NATO trauma registry. Several legal factors put constraints on the way such a registry can be established. In addition there are several practical challenges such as pseudoanonymization, data collection, data set format, and a common coding system for all nations. These challenges were identified by the RTO task group RTG 13, and several of the practical challenges have been addressed by different Comeds working groups during 2008. Based on these solutions Norway and the Netherlands currently are preparing a trial registry system. It is believed that a commonNATO trauma registry will provide important information in trauma management and evacuation.