In Case of Emergency, or ICE, is a program that enables first responders, such as paramedics, firefighters, and police officers, to identify victims and contact their next of kin to obtain important medical information. The program was conceived in the mid-2000s and promoted by British paramedic Bob Brotchie in May 2005.[1] It encourages people to enter emergency contacts in their cell phone address book under the name "ICE". Alternately, a person can list multiple emergency contacts as "ICE1", "ICE2", etc. The popularity of the program has spread across Europe, and has started to grow into North America.
Overview
In developed countries, some 80% or more of people carry a mobile phone, and the police or paramedics often use them to identify victims at road traffic accidents or other incidents. The idea of ICE is that everyone should put an emergency contact name and number into their phone under the headword "ICE". This would give the emergency services personnel a standard place to look. Following research carried out by Vodafone that showed that fewer than 25% of people carry any details of who they would like telephoned following a serious accident, a campaign encouraging people to do this was started in May 2005 by Bob Brotchie of the East England Ambulance Service in the UK. The idea has taken off since the bomb attacks in London on July 7 2005. Interviewed on July 12 2005 on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Mr. Brotchie said:
"I was reflecting on some difficult calls I've attended, where people were unable to speak to me through injury or illness and we were unable to find out who they were. I discovered that many people, obviously, carry mobile phones and we were using them to discover who they were. It occurred to me that if we had a uniform approach to searching inside a mobile phone for an emergency contact then that would make it easier for everyone."
Mr. Brotchie also urged mobile phone manufacturers to support the campaign by adding an ICE heading to phone number lists of all new mobile phones.
