How to set up Medical ID on iPhone Lock Screen

Your iPhone has a built-in feature called Medical ID that shows important health information right from the Lock Screen. Even when your phone is locked with a passcode or Face ID, a paramedic or police officer can tap the screen and see things like your blood type, allergies, medications, and emergency contacts. This can save your life if you cannot speak for yourself after a fall, a stroke, or a car accident.

Medical ID lives inside the Health app, which comes free on every iPhone. You only need to fill it out one time. And you can update it whenever you start a new medication or change emergency contacts. The setup takes about ten minutes.

What to include on your Medical ID: your full legal name, date of birth, blood type if you know it, any major medical conditions (heart disease, diabetes, epilepsy), medications you take daily, allergies (especially to medicines like penicillin), your weight and height, and at least two emergency contacts with phone numbers. You can also note your primary doctor and your organ donor status.

After you finish, ask a family member to test it. Have them pick up your locked iPhone, swipe up to the passcode screen, tap "Emergency," and then tap "Medical ID" in the bottom corner. Your information should appear. If it does not, the "Show When Locked" switch was missed during setup.

Keep your Medical ID current. Review it every six months, or any time your doctor changes a prescription. A wrong medication on file can be as dangerous as no information at all.

This feature works on every iPhone running iOS 17 or newer, which covers nearly every model still in use today. Apple Support has a full walkthrough at support.apple.com if you want to read along.