Iphone Medical ID

Apple has introduced Health App as part of IOS 8 and the app has continued to evolve through IOS9 and will continue to improve further considering how big the health and fitness tracking market is. While it is needless to say why health tracking is important, it is important mention a great feature which is not widely used or advertised - "Medical ID".

What is Medical ID
Medical ID is a an emergency card feature part of Health App. It lets the user add and store and quickly provide access to vital health information. Following are the pieces of data which Medical ID can store

• Name 
• Photo
• Date Of Birth
• Medical Conditions
• Medical Notes
• Allergies and Reactions
• Medications
• Any Number of Emergency Contacts
• Relationship of the Emergency Contact with the user
• Blood Type
• Whether the User is Organ Donor or Not
• Weight
• Height

All the information is optional and some fields can be left if the user does not choose to provide the information. There is a flag "Show When Locked" which lets the user choose whether to show the Medical ID from lock screen or not. Last but not the least is the button to delete Medical ID. Adjacent image shows a mockup of MedicalID(The image is taken from Apple Website)


Salient Features

• The Medical ID information is not included in the Users Health Data or shared with other apps according to a disclaimer at the bottom in the App. The is purely meant to be an emergency card
• From the lock screen access to medical ID is not too obvious. First the user needs to slide the "slide to unlock" which opens the the number pad to enter the passcode. Click the "Emergency" Button on the left hand side bottom corner which opens the emergency dial pad. Then click on Medical ID on the left hand side bottom
• Apple has been extremely vocal about privacy and how they handle users data.

Why using this feature is important

         In a medical emergency more the background information better it is, for this reason soldiers wear dog tags. It can save a life and lack of the same might even kill. It can help paramedics, Rescue workers, first responders to act and care in a more informed way. Access to Emergency contact information gives the ability to call the person who cares about you the most or whom you think can help you in a medical emergency - either way it helps.

Feature Suggestions to see in future upgrades

• Ability to share Health profile to better care for ailing old parents or kids or anyone else whom we care about
• Ability to get consent from the emergency contact that he or she is willing to be your emergency contact
• Ability to store advanced directives
• An advance directive is a document by which a person makes provision for health care decisions in the event that, in the future, he/she becomes unable to make those decisions. There are two main types of advance directive — the “Living Will” and the “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.”
• Access to Medical ID from the lock screen should be more obvious and widely advertised to educate people
• Ability to export or print Health profile which can be handed over instead of having to fill long documents at doctors office
• Health App itself needs to evolve to a full fledged medical profile application

I would highly encourage everyone to take advantage of this feature. Help yourself and help other help you