Set Up a Medical ID on Your Phone So Help Knows What to Do

Both iPhone and Android phones can hold a short medical summary that shows on the lock screen. Emergency responders are trained to look for it. It costs nothing and takes about ten minutes to fill in.

The reason to bother is simple. In an emergency, the person who can explain your heart condition, your blood thinner, and your penicillin allergy may not be awake. A Medical ID answers those questions without your passcode. That is the point of it: readable while the phone stays locked.

Keep it short. Conditions, medicines with doses, allergies, blood type if you know it, and one or two emergency contacts. A paramedic reads it in seconds, so a long history is less useful than four clear lines.

On an iPhone it lives in the Health app under Medical ID. On most Android phones it is in Settings, under Safety and emergency, then Medical information. Samsung and Pixel phones word it slightly differently, but the path is close enough to find.

One caution about emergency contacts. Whoever you list can be called from your locked phone. Choose someone who answers unknown numbers and who knows your medical history. A spouse who never picks up an unfamiliar caller is a poor first contact.

Review it twice a year. Medicines change more often than people expect, and an out-of-date list is worse than none, because it is trusted.

(Sources: Apple Support — support.apple.com; Google Help — support.google.com/android)