A fall, a sudden chest pain, or a bad reaction to a new medication can happen anywhere. Sometimes the person it happens to cannot explain what is wrong, what they are allergic to, or who should be called.
Every iPhone has a free tool built in for exactly that moment. It is called Medical ID, and it lives inside the Health app that comes installed on every iPhone.
This guide walks through, step by step, how to add your medical information and emergency contacts to Medical ID, and how to make sure a paramedic, police officer, or bystander can see it in the first few minutes of an emergency, even if your phone is locked and you cannot speak.
How Do I Set Up Medical ID on My iPhone?
You set up Medical ID by opening the Health app, tapping your profile picture, then Medical ID and Edit, where you add your medical details and emergency contacts and turn on Lock Screen access. The whole process takes about 5 to 10 minutes.
According to Apple’s support page Set up your Medical ID in the Health app on your iPhone, here are the steps:
- Open the Health app on your iPhone.
- Tap your profile picture in the upper right corner.
- Tap Medical ID.
- Tap Edit, or Get Started if this is your first time.
- Add your date of birth, medical conditions, allergies and reactions, medications, and blood type.
- Under Emergency Contacts, tap the plus button, choose a contact from your address book, then choose that person’s relationship to you.
- Turn on Show When Locked.
- Turn on Share During Emergency Call.
- Tap Done to save.
Plain talk: Medical ID
Medical ID is a short medical summary built into every iPhone’s Health app. It can be read by anyone who picks up your phone during an emergency, without needing your passcode.
This works the same way whether your iPhone uses Face ID or a Home button with Touch ID. The menus are identical; only the way you reach the Lock Screen passcode entry differs slightly between the two.
What Information Belongs in Medical ID?
Fill in only the fields that apply to you. Nothing is required, and you can leave any section blank.
- Medical conditions: diabetes, heart conditions, dementia, epilepsy, or anything a paramedic would need to know right away.
- Allergies and reactions: medications, foods, or substances you react to, and what that reaction looks like.
- Medications: current prescriptions, including dosage if you know it.
- Blood type: useful if an emergency transfusion or surgery is ever needed.
- Height and weight: sometimes used to work out medication doses in an emergency.
- Organ donor status: in the United States, the Health app can also register you as an organ donor through Donate Life, right from this same screen.
- Emergency contacts: one or more people, each with a relationship listed, such as daughter, son, spouse, or neighbor.
Try this
Set a yearly reminder, perhaps around a birthday, to open Medical ID and check that everything is still correct. Update it right away after a new diagnosis, a medication change, or a move to a new address.
How Do Emergency Contacts Work in Medical ID?
Emergency contacts in Medical ID are shown as information for a responder to read, not people your iPhone calls on its own. Adding someone here does not dial their number by itself.
This list is separate from the regular Contacts app on your iPhone. A phone number can already be saved in your Contacts, but you still need to add that person to Medical ID separately, with a relationship attached, before it appears there.
Where this connects to an actual call for help is Emergency SOS, the feature that dials emergency services from the Lock Screen with a button press. If you trigger an Emergency SOS call and it connects, your iPhone can also send a text message to your Medical ID emergency contacts, sharing your location, once the call ends. Our guide on what Emergency SOS does on iPhone covers that side of things in full, including how it works from a locked screen.
Say this
“Can I take a few minutes to add your allergies, your conditions, and my phone number to your iPhone’s Medical ID? It only ever shows up if there’s an emergency.”
Who should you choose as an emergency contact?
You can add more than one emergency contact, and it is worth choosing at least two if you can. Good choices include:
- An adult child or other close family member who lives nearby.
- A neighbor or close friend who could reach your home quickly.
- Someone who already knows about any major medical conditions or medications.
Avoid listing only a contact who lives interstate or overseas, since a responder standing next to you usually needs someone who can arrive in minutes, not hours. A local contact and a family member further away, listed together, cover both needs.
How Does Medical ID Appear on the Lock Screen?
A paramedic or bystander can see Medical ID from the Lock Screen without your passcode, but only if you have turned on Show When Locked first. Here is how someone else would find it on your phone:
- On the Lock Screen, swipe up from the bottom to reach the passcode entry screen.
- Tap Emergency in the lower left corner.
- On the keypad that appears, tap Medical ID in the lower left corner.
- Your medical information and emergency contacts appear on screen, with a call button next to each contact.
Two separate toggles decide how far this information travels:
| Toggle | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show When Locked | Lets anyone view your Medical ID from the Lock Screen, without your passcode |
| Share During Emergency Call | Sends your Medical ID to emergency dispatchers automatically when you call for help, in supported countries |
Safety tip
Never put passwords, PINs, account numbers, or a home security code in Medical ID. Anyone who picks up your phone can read it. Keep it limited to medical facts and a phone number for someone who can be reached quickly.
What if my iPhone is off, locked out, or the battery is dead?
Medical ID only works on a phone that is turned on and has enough battery to show the Lock Screen. It cannot help if your iPhone is switched off or the screen is broken. For that reason, it is worth pairing Medical ID with an old fashioned backup, such as a medical alert bracelet or a card in your wallet, rather than relying on your phone alone.
Why This Matters More as We Get Older
Falls and sudden medical events become more common with age. According to the CDC’s older adult fall data, more than one in four adults aged 65 and older falls each year, and falls send millions of older adults to the emergency room annually. Many of those falls happen alone, at home, where nobody else is there to answer a paramedic’s questions.
A few minutes spent on Medical ID means that even if you cannot speak, the people trying to help you are not starting from nothing. They can see what medication you take, what you are allergic to, and who to call, right from your Lock Screen, before they even open your phone.
If reading small text on your iPhone makes any of these steps harder than they need to be, our guide on making text bigger on iPhone is worth doing first.
Does Medical ID replace calling for help?
No. Medical ID is information for whoever is already helping you, not a way to call for help by itself. If you or someone nearby needs emergency services, call them the normal way, or use Emergency SOS, first. Medical ID simply makes that call, or that moment with a paramedic, more useful once help has arrived or is on the phone.
It is also worth remembering that Medical ID travels with your iPhone, not with you directly. If you are staying with family, traveling, or in an unfamiliar place without your phone in hand, a physical medical alert bracelet or a card in your wallet still has a role to play alongside it.
Where to go from here
Medical ID takes a few minutes to set up and then works quietly in the background, ready if it is ever needed. If you are setting this up on behalf of a parent, our guides on setting up a phone for an aging parent and helping a parent with their phone remotely cover the wider picture, from a distance if needed.
For a full walkthrough of this and dozens of other iPhone settings worth knowing, in the same large print, step by step style as this article, see Your iPhone.
