911ICE: A social network for the sick and wounded

Bob Brotchie, a paramedic with a mobile phone mission

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET)

In 2005, British paramedic Bob Brotchie launched an initiative to encourage people to put emergency contact information in their mobile phone address books, under the name "ICE," which stands for "In Case of Emergency." He hoped that when emergency workers reached a person who had become incapacitated, they would learn to look up the ICE number on the phone to connect to a person who could speak for the one in need.

The program has succeeded in the U.K. and Australia, and is gaining some traction in the U.S., Brotchie says. He was at the TechCrunc50 event this week pushing the ICE program's evolution: An online "waiting room" at 911ICE.org, where people who care about a sick or injured person can gather, communicate, and possibly learn how to help.

Brotchie is hoping that rather than programming in just one emergency contact, people will program in multiple emergency contacts into an online service. The ICE number that each phone has could be used to call up a service that does several things, starting with reading back medical alerts to the caller (or sending them as SMS). Then it will be able to contact the people on the emergency list, and connect at least one of the them to the caregiver. The ICE service could also, Brotchie envisions, contact all the people on the list, tell them what's going on, and invite them into a "virtual waiting room" where they can keep up to date on what's going on with the phone's owner.

The business model is "still under development," Brotchie told me, but this is still a good idea, from a person who has a bead on how families communicate in personal disasters, and on how the functionality of a mobile phone can be used as a form of electronic life buoy. Very clever.

[howard_nyc]

damn good idea, until the USA can puzzle out digital recordkeeping for medical information... and speaking as someone who has been in those nail-biting waiting room situations -- my father of blessed memory -- over more than twenty years it would have been nice if there was an easier way to get narrowcasted information that was timely and accuracte and private...

ATT: Bob Brotchie .... please add my e-address to your contact list... [e-mail]

[David Stephenson]

In addition to one about ICE, I've created a whole range of tips on smart use of cellphones, etc. in emergencies.

People are going to use their cellphones, Web 2.0 social networks, etc., during Ike whether or not officials want them to. You can learn smart, constructive ways to use them (such as texting, NOT making voice calls) from the tips I created for the Wireless Foundation: http://tinyurl.com/5o68nk and my "21st-century disaster tips you WON'T hear from officials" YouTube videos: http://tinyurl.com/35yc6r Stay safe!
W. David Stephenson
Stephenson Strategies

[MTGrizzly]

As a paramedic who worked on the streets for 25 years, I see absolutely no value to this "system."

First, under HIPPA and the Letterman-Petris-Short Act, calling someone without the patient's consent is illegal. [http://If the patient is conscious and can give consent, it negates the whole ICE concept.|http://If the patient is conscious and can give consent, it negates the whole ICE concept.] Divulging medical/mental health information is, also, illegal without the patient's consent. As is simply acknowledging that any specific person is a patient, without the permission of patients.

Second, determining who's cell phone is who's in a medical emergency is problematic. I have been to traffic accidents where we found multiple cell phones at the scene. There is no way to determine who's was who's. Can you imagine the tragedy of picking up a cell phone, violating doctor-patient privilege, and calling the WRONG person? Not only could this be emotionally devastating to the person called, but it would delay attempts to find and notify the real families of the victim. And it would lead to a massive civil suits for violating patient's rights.

Forcing healthcare professionals to go looking through cell phones for ICE information is a complete waste of their time. I will not look for ICE on cell phones at the scene of accidents or medical emergencies when I should be treating the patient. It isn't on my list of priorities, at all. In emergency medicine, we play for "par" and "par" is a live patient. Anything that gets in the way of that just isn't something I will bother with.

Setting up a system that will notify people by cell phone - voice or SMS - of a patient's condition is a massively bad idea. Who decides who gets the notices? [If you can't talk to the patient, who gives consent allowing you to spread this information?] How do you explain, in laymen's language, what is wrong with a patient? What if the notification contains an error? What if it gets sent to someone who isn't authorized to see it? Who's going to set up this network? Who's going to pay for it? How do you handle the consent issues? Who's going to gather the information - healthcare providers have better things to do that to gather, summarize, et cetera this data - and who's going to pay for all this work? Just constructing a meaningful alert would, in all probability, require a trained healthcare professional who can understand the context of the information. Say, for example, the patient is suffering from a hemo-pneumothorax and a intraperitoneal bleed. Is that really going to explain anything to the person to whom the message is being sent? No, it isn't. It has to be translated by someone who understands the pathology and the context in which it exists.

It sounds nice, but it is pie in the sky, at least as far as the United States is concerned. Maybe you can get away with this lack of respect for the patient's privacy in Europe, but I don't see it happening here. The biggest problem, after the legalities are dealt with, (no small job), is who's going to pay for it?

And this from "a person who has a bead on how families communicate in personal disasters..."

[DelvinMcGee]

Wow. You are very uninformed for a supposed health care professional. First, the law is HIPAA, not HIPPA. Next, under HIPAA any health care provider may share your medical information with a family member or friend if you are incapacitated in order to provide you with emergency medical treatment. The ICE your phone Campaign fits perfectly within HIPAA, as the person with a mobile phone specifically enters their emergency contact information into their phone for the health care professional to access. If you truly are a paramedic, you may want to learn about ICE, since it is recommended by ACEP (American College of Emergency Physicians) and thousands of state and local governments throughout the US.

[DelvinMcGee]

Wow, MT Grizzly is very uninformed for a supposed health care professional. First, the law is HIPAA, not HIPPA. Next, under HIPAA any health care provider may share your medical information with a family member or friend if you are incapacitated in order to provide you with emergency medical treatment. The ICE your phone Campaign fits perfectly within HIPAA, as the person with a mobile phone specifically enters their emergency contact information into their phone for the health care professional to access. If you truly are a paramedic, you may want to learn about ICE, since it is recommended by ACEP (American College of Emergency Physicians) and thousands of state and local governments throughout the US.

[DelvinMcGee]

Wow, MT Grizzly is very uninformed for a supposed health care professional. First, the law is HIPAA, not HIPPA. Next, under HIPAA any health care provider may share your medical information with a family member or friend if you are incapacitated in order to provide you with emergency medical treatment. The ICE your phone Campaign fits perfectly within HIPAA, as the person with a mobile phone specifically enters their emergency contact information into their phone for the health care professional to access. If you truly are a paramedic, you may want to learn about ICE, since it is recommended by ACEP (American College of Emergency Physicians) and thousands of state and local governments throughout the US.