Emergency Access to Medical ID in the Health App

The Health App on your iPhone allows you to define a Medical ID. The Medical ID contains your personal information (name, date of birth), emergency contacts, and medical information (medical conditions, blood type, allergy information, medications, etc.). The Medical ID is built into the Health app which includes your personal information and emergency contacts. Emergency Access to Medical ID in the Health App can easily be set to Show When Locked. This means that if something happens to you, and you have your iPhone with you, even if the phone is locked, your Medical ID can be accessed.

In order to allow your Medical ID to be viewed when your iPhone is locked, tap the Edit button in the upper right corner of the Medical ID screen. At the top of the screen you will see Show When Locked. If it is not enabled, tap on the switch next to Show When Locked to enable it. Tap Done in the upper right corner to save, or Cancel in the upper left corner to discard the change.

Accessing the Medical ID in an Emergency

If you turn on the iPhone, and you are not able to unlock it, you will see the Emergency button on the bottom left corner of the screen.Tap the Emergency button. If Show When Locked is enabled, you will see * Medical ID in the bottom left corner of the Emergency screen. Tap to view the Medical ID and all of its information. From this screen, you can call any of the Emergency contacts specified in the Medical ID.

If you are using an Apple Watch, and Show When Locked is enabled on your iPhone, the Medical ID can be viewed by pressing and holding the side button on the watch for 2-3 seconds and then sliding Medical ID to the right. All of the medical ID information will be displayed on the watch. If there are phone numbers that have been saved as Emergency Contacts, you can tap any of the phone numbers to place a call to that person. If your Apple Watch supports cellular connectivity, you can call an emergency contact directly from the watch. If your watch does not support cellular connectivity, you must have the iPhone nearby in order to place a call to an emergency contact.

Setting up the Medical ID could potentially save your life. This is something that you should do right away, and let others know about this as well. Please note, that making your Medical ID available in case of emergency also has its vulnerabilities. By doing this, anyone who has access to your phone, can potentially access your Medical ID. If you have information that isn’t important for an emergency situation, and is personal information that you don’t want others to see, you should not include such information in your Medical ID. Only include information that would be important in an emergency situation.

For more information about the Medical ID, read our post Inside the Health App.