Covering Stories about latest gadgets and apps, it’s exciting to know that world is advancing and connecting like never before.
Disruptive apps are launched almost every day helping you shop, find best restaurants, cafes, friends to connect with, jobs, and lots more.
But what was quite surprising and backward to learn about this technologically advanced world was the fact that there are hardly any apps that address the more serious issues of human beings like their Safety.
Imagine this: You’ve just met with an accident, you’re unconscious and hurt. Do the emergency responders have any contact details of yourself or your loved ones or other emergency contacts to let them know your condition?
Your wallet and driver’s license may contain some identifying information about you, but often lacks a home phone number or other emergency contact information.
Some people also have auto locking or password protection on their phones that prevent this information from being retrieved.
Not having this kind of information can leave emergency responders scrambling to find family.
How will they also know if you have any existing medical conditions that may impact your treatment?
To address this very crucial problem and having gone through a personal experience, Michael Soenen created EmergencyLink — the first and only free, emergency response service that stores your vital information and emergency contacts.
Mr. Soenen, the chairman and CEO of EmergencyLink said he was motivated to design the app, after his friend, who was single and lived alone, was seriously injured in a car accident while on a business trip. His friend lay in the hospital for 2.5 days before any friends, relatives or co-workers could find him. They didn’t know his whereabouts.
“This struck me as ridiculous situation, and something there had to be a better answer for, so I spent the next year researching how to design an app to find people in case of an emergency,” said Mr. Soenen.
He wanted the app to be easily accessible to people of all age groups, from Children to adults in their 80s.
According to Mr. Soenen, Americans are way under-prepared to handle a medical emergency.
Check out few eye-opening facts from “Ready for Emergencies” survey carried out by EmergencyLink.
89% of Americans don't have Emergency Contact Information in their Wallet and Mobile Phone.
Over 1 million people are admitted to hospitals, unconscious, and without emergency contact information of any kind.
Nearly 800,000 children go missing annually. While the first hour is the most crucial for a child’s safe return, it often takes parents more than three hours to gather the critical information needed to put out a report. How can you cut that down to less than five minutes?
“In our national survey and interviews with the emergency first responders it is alarmingly clear that people are not prepared and first responders often do not have the information needed to best help in an emergency. Our free, simple to use service ensures first responders will always have your critical medical and emergency contact information,” says Mr. Soenen.
EmergencyLink is a free app, available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry that anyone can use to create a secure, comprehensive online emergency plan. It lets members store and share important emergency and medical information. Members pick the friends and or family they want to share the information with, and each get emergency ID cards and tags to put in their wallets, on key chains, briefcases, running shoes, luggage tags or kid's backpacks and adhesive stickers for their drivers’ license, health card or cell phones.
For the iPhone, a special option posts your account number as a screensaver to help first responders if your phone is locked.
EmergencyLink also has a free 24-hour emergency hotline, so first responders like the Police, fire fighters and emergency medical technicians have round-the-clock access to the important information if needed.
"If you sign up with EmergencyLink you sign up your emergency contacts. And once you've signed up we will send you our ID cards and a little sticker that goes on the back of your driver's license and if you do get injured they call our 800 number. We'll work with whoever is making the call and we will connect them to all of your emergency contacts," Mr. Soenen said.
Through EmergencyLink’s one-click Reports, members can provide first time responders like police, firefighters or medical professionals with all the information needed to take immediate action, if a child or loved one is injured or goes missing- whether it’s critical health information for doctors or to create missing persons reports or Amber Alerts.
“As first responders, we are trained to look for identifying and emergency contact information on anyone we treat. Unfortunately, there are many times in which no information is available. EmergencyLink tags, key cards and other identifiers are an incredible relief to see,” said Mark Kirunchyk, a police officer in the County of Los Angeles. “From an accident to a missing person, there isn’t a situation I’ve gone into where we weren’t looking for more information. EmergencyLink gives us what we need, and fast, so that we know who to call, what not to administer, and how to quickly help anyone we treat.”
Check out the Video below:
The app’s home page includes some of the useful and easy to complete sections:
- Important Contacts—Users can share information in five levels (contact and profile information, emergency medical information, emergency contacts, medical contacts, other important contacts) so the right people get the right information in an emergency, while protecting your privacy.
- Important Records—Members can store everything ranging from emergency contacts, allergies and chronic conditions, medical information, insurance policy numbers and doctor information, to copies of documents like a living will, passport and credit cards. Members can add dependents (child, elder or even a pet) to their account. They also identify the contacts that receive access to this information, in the event of an emergency
- Help—a wonderful question and answer section about how to fill each section, what information people can see or the app’s security functions.
The app can also be synced with its web based network.
EmergencyLink uses the same sophisticated data encryption security systems that national banks use on their websites.
Having all of this information on file, and available only to verified first responders and trusted friends, family and contacts, can be a life saver — or avert the anxiety over your loved ones in the event of a personal emergency.
Besides, having a secure repository for all of your medical and non-medical information may also prove to be vital, should your original documents be lost or destroyed.
A service like EmergencyLink definitely assures you and your family peace of mind and life-saving support in an emergency situation.
You can sign up for the free service by going to EmergencyLink.com or connect to the Company through its Facebook and Twitter accounts.