This Smartphone Trick Could Save Your Life

We all know how useful smartphones are, but did you know your can’t-live-without-it gadget could actually save your life?

Included with Apple’s iOS 8 update for iPhones is a health app that offers the opportunity to set up Medical ID. Medical ID saves important health information, and first responders can access critical details right from the lock screen without even needing the passcode.

In a post that has since gone viral, a nurse named Julie Thompson used the power of Facebook to share the importance of creating a medical ID on your phone.

She writes, “Working in a public hospital and seeing patients in ED all the time I see many patients come in and we have had no way of knowing who they are or how to contact their next of kin or their medical history! And their phones are locked!”

We were sure to test it out and found it only took a few minutes and was very simple to set up. Just follow these steps:

1. Open the “Health” app and tap on Medical ID. Click “Edit.”

2. Enter as much information as you want, including emergency contacts, your birth date, height, blood type and allergies. You can also list if you are an organ donor.

3. Be sure to turn on “Show When Locked” so if there is an emergency, first responders can find the vital information.

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Medical ID also allows you to make emergency calls if your phone is locked. Just press the home button, tap “Emergency,” then dial the number you need.

Android users can find a similar app called ICE (In Case of Emergency).

If you don’t like either app, you can go the old-fashioned route of simply listing someone as your emergency contact. You could write whatever you want next to their name in your contact list, but Thompson suggests putting I.C.E.

For extra help setting up your medical ID on an iPhone, check out this video:

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[h/t: ShareTap]