CEO of medical ID charity MedicAlert, Kirsten Giles

At a time when health is more important than ever, this story will reveal how medical ID charity, MedicAlert, has seen a worrying drop in people making their medical information available for use by medical staff in emergencies.

It examines the reasons behind this and takes a look at amongst which groups in society is the sharing of medical information a matter of life and death.

Communicating critical medical information in an emergency is essential for those living with any medical condition including dementia/Alzheimer’s, diabetes, allergies, epilepsy, lung or heart disorders, and rare conditions.

Providing first responders with the information they need when the wearer is unable to communicate this themselves can be life-saving, avoiding fatal errors or misdiagnosis of symptoms.

Wearable medical IDs are the leading method of communicating this information and provide the wearer with peace of mind to allow them to live their lives more freely.

This reduction in awareness of medical ID tags is even more worrying as we emerge from a pandemic and are seeing an increase in those living with underlying health conditions – with 1 in 3 (32%) people in the UK now requiring specialist medical treatment due to living with chronic health conditions, compared to just 26% in 2011.