I’ve started wearing an ID tag on my shoe while out for my runs.

After being hit by a scooter in Shanghai (read about that here), I realized how much trouble I would be in if I was seriously hurt and had no way of communicating to doctors or my husband.

Since I don’t really plan my shorter runs, I could be almost anywhere and Dave would have a hard time figuring out where I would be if I didn’t come home at a reasonable time and he couldn’t get in touch with me.

Emergency SOS for Apple Watch

My Apple Watch has an emergency feature that (if I was conscious) can be activated so my GPS location is sent to emergency services.

Hopefully, I would be in the right frame of mind to tell them what my blood type is, who to call and their number and my insurance information.

If I’m not I’ve often thought about how things can change in a second and the more information someone has who is trying to help you the better.

What Medical Personnel Want to Know

Dr. Melanie Fijas (who is also my daughter-in-law) says that the more information on a patient when they enter into the emergency room after an accident the better.

She says that the information that would be helpful for someone who is unable to communicate includes: full name, date of birth, past medical history (including surgeries that may impact care, devices in the patients body such as pacemakers, conditions, etc.), medications, allergies, emergency contact name and phone number and name/number of doctor, blood type and if you are an organ donor.

Which is an awful lot to fit on a shoe or wrist tag!

You would have to whittle that down as much as possible to fit in what is necessary.

Someone with a pacemaker and a blood disease may decide the information they provide is different from someone who has no pertinent medical history and is an organ donor.

I would argue that having at the very least your emergency contacts name and number on you (as well as your name) is important so they can talk to that person ASAP and fill them in on the other information.

This, of course, means your emergency contact needs to know the answers to the above questions.

Apple Health App

The health app in the Apple phone also will store your medical information and can be accessed by emergency personnel. Have you ever seen the “emergency” notation on the bottom left of the lock screen when you need to enter your passcode?

This stores medical information that you provide so someone can access it without knowing your code.

Keep in mind, ANYONE can access this if they get ahold of your phone.

To fill in this information, go to the Health app and tap on “medical ID” in the bottom right.

Edit this to include medical conditions and notes, allergies, medications, blood type, if you are an organ donor, weight, height and who your emergency contacts are.

If you have an Apple watch, you have your emergency information on that as well. Everything you have on the phone will be available on your watch by holding down the button on the side of the watch under the crown.

Swipe medical id (not SOS-this will alert emergency services to your location) and your information is stored there. Very handy in case of emergency.

Sorry… I don’t know anything about other platforms like Android. I’m obviously an Apple girl.

ID Tags

I decided to search online for ID tags, and because I don’t have allergies or take any medications I only needed a simple one. There are many out there, and some give you more room to put down lots of information.

This is the one I purchased.

RoadID

Another one I found, RoadID, has a serial number and pin number for first responders.

This can be customized for each person so medical personnel have all the information they would need.

This would be especially helpful if you take medications, have life-threatening allergies or chronic conditions a doctor should know before proceeding with any treatment.

In addition to purchasing the ID ($20+), there is also a membership (free for the first 6 months) to the program. After that, it is only $9.99 per year.

UPDATE: Sunday nights on Twitter is #runchat. They ask questions and a bunch of us answer them over the course of an hour. Usually, there is a topic that we cover and it’s a great time of getting to know other runners and learning some things.

I actually WON a RoadID, through that group chat. The website was having a Spring sale, so with the gift card I was able to get one for me and Dave. 

If you would like one of your own, you can use this link http://roadid.me/myWWM to get $5 off any order of $10 or more. 

 

Consider carrying some form of ID with information that could make all the difference if something happens while you are out on the road. Even just being able to contact someone you love to be by your side in an emergency is well worth having ID on you! Click To Tweet

Taking even a small amount of time to jot down important information on a piece of paper is better than nothing. We never think anything is going to happen on the road until it does and you may save your life!