During today’s “Emergency Preparedness” Live Chat with Lisa Katzki from Frio I mentioned that I have a phone app on my phone that stores my medical information. There’s various apps out there that share many similar features for both Android and iPhone. I believe the iPhone may even come with one that is standard.
The one I use for my Android phone is “In Case of Emergency” put out by Matrix Mobile Applications. It’s a free app. It puts a red bar that says “In Case of Emergency Tap Emergency Application Icon” and of course the red square with the white medical cross on it, with ICE and “Emergency Application” written in it. This can be accessed by anyone, even when my phone is locked. Granted, this has it’s ups and down as it does mean that if my phone is lost, people can conceivably access some pretty personal information. On the other hand, if I have a low, or I’m in a car accident and I’m unconscious and unable to speak, people can access personal medical information!
Tapping on the icon brings them into the ICE app where they can get a list of my Emergency Contacts - my husband and my mother, my medical history with my blood type, diabetic status and other medical conditions, my list of doctors (I have my PCP & Endo), my insurance information, date of birth, and my list of medications which I am careful to keep up to date. There’s also room for my vaccines, but shame on me I haven’t put those in.
This has actually been great even in non-emergency situations. It’s been really convenient for taking with me to doctor’s appointments as of course every single visit they want to go through my medication list and I can just hand them my phone and say “This is it, it’s up to date as of this morning.”