Medical ID

As I sit here writing this post, I’m watching the One Love Manchester concert that has been put together to honour the 22 lives lost at the Ariana Grande concert on 22 May. I looked at Twitter last night to find out that yet more people had been killed after an attack on London Bridge. 90 people were killed and over 460 were injured by a car bomb in Kabul. The world is a desperately sad place at the moment and you just don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Closer to home, my friend Kat, who we visited in Canada, flew home unexpectedly after a friend of hers went through a terrible, sudden trauma. She was the one who told me about this iPhone hack so all credit to her.

In case of emergency

We used to be recommended to save someone’s name in our phone as ICE (in case of emergency) – showing someone who to contact should something bad happen to you. All very well and good when we were using Nokia 3210s, but in the days of smart phones, you can’t even get in to see someone’s contacts to find out who their ICE is.

iPhone security is great – you can put in a code, you can scan your fingerprint – it’s designed so that people CAN’T get in. But what happens when someone else needs to get in? What if you’ve been caught up in something, been in an accident or fallen unconscious and a stranger desperately needs to get into your phone to call your next of kin? Even if you’ve lost your phone on a night out, this feature can help.

That’s where Medical ID comes in. Honestly, it’s so amazing and so genius, I don’t know how it isn’t more widely known. Everyone who I went on to tell about it said they had no idea about it, which is why I thought it was so important to write a blog post and share the knowledge far and wide.

Medical ID is basically a short form that you can set up using your Health app (standard with all iPhones) and when you do, anyone who has your phone will be able to access your critical health data, next of kin, wider family members, your full name and your date of birth without unlocking your phone.

A step by step guide to setting up Medical ID

This will honestly take you about 1 minute, max. And it could save your life.

Step 1: Open up your HEALTH app

If you’ve never used this before (you should, it’s got a pedometer and everything) you will have to fill in a few details, but you can get away with just putting your name and date of birth in. It’s that one that is white with a pink heart in the corner.

Step 2: Click on Medical ID

On the bottom right hand side of the menu, click on Medical ID and then Edit.

Step 3: Enter your details

There is space to fill in medical conditions, notes, allergies, medication you’re taking, weight, height and finally you can add in emergency contact details of your spouse, your partner, your parents, your siblings, your manager – anyone you can think of.

*DON’T FORGET THIS!* Make sure you select the option that says “Show when locked”. This is the only way that people will be able to use the information you submit in an emergency.

Step 4: Check it’s worked

When you go on the screen where it asks you to put in your password, there is a small link at the bottom left that says Emergency. Click on this and it should pop up with a keypad. Bottom left, there will now be Medical ID in red. Click on this and it takes you to the data you just filled in on your Medical ID page. Click on any of the phone numbers and they will call those people.

And that’s it, you’re done!

When I heard about this, I honestly couldn’t believe I didn’t know about it before. I really want everyone to go and do it now. And tell your husband, your wife, your Mum, your Dad and everyone else you know to do it too. I know this is an iPhone feature, but I’m pretty sure you can download an app called Medical ID for your Android phone as well.

Please let me know in the comments below if you’re setting up Medical ID on your iPhone.

♥ JH

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