It does worry me that if my husband was involved in an accident, or needed urgent medical attention and I wasn’t with him, how would the medics know that he has had a liver transplant and what medication he is on?
He does wear a medic alert disc around his neck, but if that is somehow removed, all they have to go on is the fact he has a large L shape scar.
And in regards to me…I don’t have a medic alert so how would people know in an emergency that I have no thyroid and am severely lactose intolerant if I am unable to communicate?
Then a post on my Facebook feed a couple of days ago reminded me about a very important feature which was already installed on my iPhone…I just needed to set it up!
So I thought I would share it here today in case you hadn’t heard about it!
If you have an iPhone that is running IOS 8 or later, then you are able to set up what is known as a Medical ID…and this info can be accessed even if the iPhone is locked!
Medical ID is a feature of the Health App….an app which was installed automatically when you updated to IOS 8.
To get it set up, just tap on the Health App, and then tap on Medical ID which is down the right hand corner.
Tap on Create Medical ID…the first thing to turn on is Show When Locked…this means that this info can be accessed in an emergency even if the phone is locked by simply tapping Emergency and then Medical ID.
Then you can fill in the required info, such as medical conditions, allergies and medications, plus add an identifying photo so a medic can identify they are treating the person to whom the information is relevant.
You can also add blood type, weight and height, plus I am happy to say, whether you are an organ donor.
There is also the ability to add emergency contacts…the only proviso with this is the contact has to already be in your iPhone contacts.
To access this info on a locked iPhone, just tap on Emergency on the pin code screen, and if the Medical ID is set up, it will show on the bottom left…
Just a word of caution about all this…it is important to remember that although Apple doesn’t share this data, anyone who knows about this feature can access it if they get hold of your phone.
You have to weigh up what is crucial information in case of an emergency, with what you are comfortable in revealing should someone access your phone.
We have no issues in sharing our medical conditions and medications in case of an emergency, but will only have each other as emergency contacts.
We hope it never needs to be used..for either of us…but will activate it…just in case!
I am not sure how many medics actually know about this feature, and whether it is used much in Australia…please let me know if you work in the emergency field, and have used Medical ID when treating a person!
Have you set up your Medical ID? Have you ever had to use it?