[Medical ID and emergency apps: A useful tool in emergency situations or a waste of time?]

In order to provide safe care to a patient in an emergency situation, it is useful to know something about the patient's previous medical conditions and medication. For this very reason smartphones have been equipped with so-called emergency apps (e.g. medical-ID, emergency-ID). The aim of our study was to find out whether the owners of smartphones are using the apps and whether medical professionals are trying to access this information.

We conducted a survey among patients in our outpatient clinic at a level one trauma center. We collected data over 3 months regarding the usage behavior of the aforementioned apps. We simultaneously asked emergency physicians at various hospitals about their experiences with these apps.

We were able to interview 192 patients and 103 emergency physicians. The emergency apps were unknown to 45% (n = 79) of the respondents; only 10% (n = 19) of the respondents had the app with data stored. Furthermore, it was found that a total of 21% (n = 41) of the persons carried a note on themselves with previous illnesses and medication. Of the surveyed physicians, 42% (n = 44) stated that they had heard of the app before; however, only 6% (n = 5) routinely searched the smartphone for relevant information in the case of nonresponsive patients. Only 14% of physicians (n = 14) have successfully used the app so far.

The collected data show that the emergency apps are still unknown to many patients and emergency physicians alike. Due to the low distribution it does not seem to be recommendable to search the smartphone for the apps in time-critical situations after accidents. For patients over 55 years of age, it currently seems more promising to search their wallets for information regarding their previous illnesses.