What medical information to carry if you're older or have a chronic condition
Updated 27 October 2026 · 4 min read
If you are older or have a chronic condition, it is worth carrying what someone helping you would need to know if you can't speak: who to call, your important conditions, your allergies, the medication you take and whether you have a device such as a pacemaker. Nothing more is needed, and it is better kept short, clear and up to date.
Why carry it
After a fall, a dizzy spell or an accident you may not be able to explain anything. Whoever gets there first (a neighbour, a colleague, the ambulance crew) has to decide quickly, usually knowing nothing about you. A few well-chosen details help them contact your family and not miss something important.
This guide is general information and does not replace your doctor's advice. At your next appointment, ask which details about your own case are worth carrying.
The essentials
- Your name and one or two emergency contacts, with their phone number and how they relate to you (daughter, neighbour, carer).
- Conditions that change how you need to be treated: for example diabetes, epilepsy, heart problems, kidney failure, COPD, Alzheimer's or another dementia.
- Allergies, especially to medicines (penicillin, anti-inflammatories…), latex or foods that can cause a severe reaction.
- The medication you take daily. If you take anticoagulants or insulin, make it stand out: it is one of the first things that matters.
- Any device you have: pacemaker, implantable defibrillator, insulin pump, prosthesis.
What can also help
- Your blood type, if you know it. Hospitals will check it anyway before a transfusion, but it doesn't hurt.
- Your doctor or health centre.
- If you have registered an advance directive (living will), that it exists and who can give more information.
- If you wear hearing aids, have difficulty communicating or speak another language.
- At work: your company, your role and your occupational insurer, so the right people are told.
What to leave out
If anyone who finds you can see the information, also think about what isn't needed. Whoever helps you in the first minutes doesn't need your ID number, your health card number or your exact address. Nor do they need your full medical history: your health service already has the full reports. The shorter it is, the faster the important part gets read.
Where to carry it
What matters is that it is always with you and that whoever helps you can find it. The most common options:
- A card in your wallet, next to your ID. It is where people usually look to find out who you are.
- Your phone's medical profile (Medical ID on iPhone, Emergency information on Android), viewable from the lock screen. It relies on you having your phone with you, charged, and on the helper knowing where to look.
- A wristband or a keyring tag, for people who don't carry a wallet or may become disoriented.
- An NFC card, tag or wristband: whoever helps you holds their phone near it and sees your details and a button to call your family, without unlocking yours. That is what LinkID does.
Paper has one advantage: it needs nothing to be read. Its drawbacks are that it goes out of date as soon as a medication or a phone number changes, and that little fits on it. That is why many people combine two options.
Keep it up to date
Outdated information can be worse than none: a phone number that no longer exists or a medication you stopped months ago. Review it whenever your treatment or contacts change, and go over all of it at your check-ups.
If you care for a relative, you can keep it up to date for them: they only have to carry it.
If you are the one helping someone
In an emergency in Spain or anywhere in the EU, call 112. While you wait, check whether the person carries a card or wristband with their details, or whether their phone shows a medical profile on the lock screen, and tell the operator or whoever arrives.