Emergency iPhone App Takes ICE Into the Next Generation

In its two years of existence, Apple's iPhone has sold more than 21 million units. This summer's release of the iPhone 3GS should boost that total considerably. That's a lot of Americans with a lot of communications capability in their hands--and a lot of communications capability EMS could be taking greater advantage of.

To help it do that, meet smart-ICE, a first-of-its-kind iPhone app that advances the concept of ICE ("In Case of Emergency" information kept on cell phones) into the next generation.

The brainchild of a 30-year fire/EMS veteran, smart-ICE has several key functions:

• Storage of personal and medical information, including medications, allergies, past conditions, etc.
• An alert feature that sounds a PASS-type tone every two minutes after calling 9-1-1. If a caller is incapacitated, this calls the attention of responders to the iPhone and its relevant information.
• Passcode wallpaper that can contain custom messages for emergencies. An owner who locks their phone can use this feature if they’re incapacitated to direct responders to an emergency contact who can tell them the owner's passcode, allowing the responders to unlock the iPhone and access its information.
• Emergency contact dialing through a tab within the app.

"I think," says creator Tim Green, formerly an EMS director in Ohio, "it has just about everything an EMS provider could need to help treat a person."

Green conceived smart-ICE last year following a serious medical event with his wife. Good care led to a positive outcome for her, but in the moment of a loved one's near-death emergency, even a longtime EMSer like Green had trouble recalling her complete set of medical details.

"You spend 30 years in fire and EMS, and think you've seen it all," Green notes. "But it's a lot different when you're working on a member of your own family. Once I got to the ED that day, they were asking me questions like when her surgery was and what medications she was on. I'd get close, but couldn't remember everything exactly, and I realized the need for having that information available."

Green subsequently teamed with a nephew who had the needed technological expertise, and they developed the app, originally known as EMS Alert. They created a company to market it, EMS Options, and rolled it out in May.

It's a boom era for smart-phone apps, though, and EMS Alert, while more capable than many, wasn't positioned to stand out among the plethora of emergency, first aid and related apps coming available. That's what led to July's rechristening as the more self-explanatory smart-ICE. As well, EMS Options allied with a company called ICE4Safety, which promotes trademarked, internationally recognized ICE images, to create an icon that would be easily identifiable for emergency personnel checking patients' phones.

"There are recognition issues to consider--paramedics have to be able to look at something like this and know it's an ICE program," says Green. "The EMS Alert emblem we were using before didn't jump out at you and say ICE. We wanted something that could be nationally and even globally recognized, and now I think we have that."

Global recognizability is also the idea behind one of smart-ICE's most unique features, its automatic emergency tone. The alert begins when the app is used to call 9-1-1, and continues until it's manually stopped. If a caller loses consciousness before responders arrive, the familiar PASS tone alerts the responders to the presence of the phone, where they will find, and hopefully activate, the smart-ICE icon.

The benefit of ICE programs has also occasionally fallen victim to locking phones that keep providers from accessing their information. The wallpaper feature is a way around that. A user could put the name of their spouse or a close friend on the wallpaper as a reference for rescuers if the user for some reason can't unlock their phone. A crew member can then call this contact and get the code to do so in an emergency.