Sign a petition: A public IN CASE OF EMERGENCY iPhone option

Hi, we’re Ben Friedman and Sara LaHue! We are third-year UCSF medical students who are passionate about using technology to improve access to medical care. We have both witnessed the difficulties of treating someone who presented to the Emergency Department whose identity or emergency contact was unknown. Think of these sample scenarios:

• A commercial plane crashes and injured, non-English speaking children are separated from their parents.
• A bicyclist is critically injured after being hit by a bus but comes with no identification information.
• A teenager requires intubation for status asthmaticus before we could obtain her emergency contact information.
• An elderly patient with dementia is found wandering the city streets with only an iPhone on him.

Even if a patient does present with a phone, the lock screen is often a barrier to obtaining this crucial information. After meeting with social workers from the San Francisco General Hospital Emergency Department, we feel that one way to remedy this concern we would be to ask Apple Inc. to allow customers to appoint an In Case of Emergency (“ICE”) contact that can be accessed from the iPhone lock screen.

Please help us show Apple that there is strong interest in having this simple feature by signing our form. Your 30 seconds could save lives and help reach worried family members in times of medical emergencies.

View summary of responses thus far.

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