How to save emergency medical information in your iPhone

TRAVEL TIP | With today’s breed of smartphones practically focusing on everything other than making telephone calls, it should come as no surprise that Apple iPhones can double as your emergency contact card.

That’s thanks to a nifty ‘Medical ID’ feature in Apple’s Health app – installed by default on phones running iOS 8 and newer – which lets you save your emergency contact information, medical conditions, organ donor status and more, which can be accessed even when your phone is locked.

To save your information, open that Health app, click ‘Medical ID’ in the bottom right corner and begin by completing basics such as your name and a photograph (which can help to identify you if you’re unable to respond), and any important medical conditions…

… including allergies, medications, your blood type and organ donor status. Savvy road warriors could also add their travel insurance details as a ‘medical note’ including their policy number to make things easy if urgent medical assistance is ever needed overseas…

… and of course, you can add one or several emergency contacts. When all is complete, tap ‘Done’ and you can preview your Medical ID within the Health app:

Provided you checked the ‘show when locked’ option, the information you’ve entered here can now be accessed by anybody who comes across your phone – such as doctors and ambulance staff if you’re rushed to hospital or even passers-by after an incident.

They can do this by clicking ‘Emergency’ on your phone’s lock screen…

… then tapping ‘Medical ID’…

… which shows the same information but without needing you to unlock your phone, which would defeat the purpose:

Phone calls to your emergency contacts can also be made from this screen simply by clicking on their name, so for international travellers we’d suggest including the country code, being +61 instead of the leading 0, allowing the call to complete both in Australia and when abroad.

Hopefully your Medical ID information will never need to be accessed, but should you wind up unconscious and requiring urgent medical attention to save your life, you’ll be glad you took the few minutes to set things up.

Also read: Using iPhone 'do not disturb' on your next business trip

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Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.