Emergency Medical Identification in Patients with Chronic Medical Conditions

Abstract

Emergency medical identification (EMI) comes in many forms, including jewelry, wallet cards, shoelace tags, seatbelt covers, on smart phones and more recently, tattoos. While some forms of EMI are free of cost, others are expensive with annual membership fees to provide comprehensive medical information 24/7 to emergency personnel. EMI is vital for patients with chronic and/or hidden conditions like seizure disorders, cardiac disease, allergies, adrenal insufficiency (AI), and diabetes. Having EMI improves access to life saving medical care in life-threatening situations.The idea for a medic alert system and a medical identification bracelet dates back to the 1950s, when the daughter of Doctor Marion Collins had a life-threatening reaction to tetanus antitoxin. His daughter survived, but after the incident, Dr. Collins and his wife would pin a note to their daughters coat or wrap a paper bracelet around her wrist when she would travel away from them (MedicAlert Foundation, 2020). Dr. Collins and his daughter designed the first medic alert bracelet and soon after, the MedicAlert Foundation was created. It is now an international, non-profit organization dedicated to providing vital information to health responders during emergency situations and to providing EMI education and resources to first responders, health professionals and patients. Prior to this system being available, people with conditions like diabetes and epilepsy were put in jail as drunks and died due to lack of treatment (Hildreth, 1964).Although EMI has been available for over 50 years, patients and health professionals do not use it to its fullest potential. A survey of emergency room staff and ambulance personnel in the United Kingdom found that 99% of respondents had heard of medical identification worn on the body but only 71% of emergency room staff routinely searched for it. If medical identification was found, only 17% of the emergency room staff used the emergency helpline associated with the medical identification (Morton, Murad, Omar, & Taylor, 2002).Many patients with chronic or hidden conditions do not have any EMI. Rushworth, Chrisp, and Torpy (2019), using data from MedicAlert,