The concept is simple. By storing the acronym ICE – in case of emergency – in the address book of your mobile phone, followed by the name and number of a relative or close friend, medical and emergency services personnel will be able to get in swift contact with your loved ones.

The idea was first conceived by British paramedic Bob Brotchie, a clinical team leader for the East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust. Brotchie, who has been a paramedic for almost 15 years, has extensive experience of struggling to get contact information from shocked or injured patients. It occurred to him that while a majority of the victims carried no details about their next of kin, almost everyone carried a mobile phone.

“I was constantly scrolling through patients’ mobile phone address books, trying to establish who they were before we got to the hospital,” Brotchie says. “It was time consuming and often unsuccessful, so I came up with the idea of using an acronym to create a uniform approach.”

According to the ICE home page, it normally takes hours to contact family members in an emergency – but it can sometimes take days. With ICE in your phone, that time can be significantly reduced. Emergency personnel can quickly find out whom to contact to confirm the identity of a casualty. In turn, the contact may be able to provide vital medical information such as blood group and allergies, and give consent for emergency treatment.

In April 2005, Brotchie launched a nationwide campaign in the UK to promote the concept of ICE numbers, backed by mobile phone company Vodafone. Following the terrorist attacks in London in July 2005, ICE took off, spreading rapidly from the UK to the US, Australia and New Zealand. The concept got global exposure practically overnight, with international media coverage and a large-scale e-mail campaign helping spread the word.

“The response was overwhelming,” Brotchie says. “I stood in my ambulance uniform in New York’s Times Square asking people if they had heard about ICE, and four out of five people had. It was phenomenal. We got backing from the governments in Australia and New Zealand, and a large telecoms company in Australia sent out 7 million SMS messages inviting their customers to put ICE in their mobile.”

The original mobile-phone concept quickly developed. Brotchie says: “People asked what would happen if their mobile phone was password-protected, if it was destroyed in an accident, the batteries failed or the network went down. They loved the idea of ICE but they wanted something more secure and robust.”

The answer was ICE Contact – a fully secure emergency-contact service. Members of the subscription service submit medical and next-of-kin information in exchange for a personal ICE card. The card holds no personal details – those are stored on a secure database – just a membership number and a free phone number.

Upon finding the card, emergency personnel can call the number and obtain potentially life-saving information about the patient. The ICE call center will then immediately notify the emergency contact.

Brotchie says having both an ICE number on your phone and ICE Contact is a great combination: “Should you be unfortunate enough to be in an accident, your chances of being reunited with your loved ones at the earliest possible time are increased enormously.” The subscription service has now spread to the US, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Brotchie thinks the main reasons for the ICE concept catching on are because it is simple, easy to use and free. But it is also about timing. He says: “Following 9/11 (terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001) and the London bombings, people have become more aware. The attitude has changed from ‘it wouldn’t happen to me’ to entertaining the thought that it might. And, of course, people’s lives are randomly touched by road accidents and illness every day.”

Brotchie is now focusing on securing the future of the subscription service and has been encouraging mobile phone companies to include an ICE contact as a standard address-book feature in future models. “I’d love to be more involved in that because I think there is so much that could be done,” he says.

“The whole idea is about protecting people – providing them with the best opportunity to be reunited with their loved ones and receive appropriate medical attention. I don’t really care how that happens, as long as it does.”

Sören Just Pedersen, head of Information at Sony Ericsson in Lund - where product development takes place - is familiar with the ICE concept. He says: “We have been talking about it here for some time and though I’m not sure what will come out of it, ICE is a great idea.”

Susanna O’Grady