• One of the difficulties long faced by emergency services personnel is how to locate next of kin for (or obtain other necessary information about) a victim who is unconscious, dead, or otherwise unable to respond to questions. Even if the victim is carrying one or more forms of identification which have remained with him (such as a driver's license), those items don't necessarily provide information about where and how relatives or other interested parties can be reached, resulting in delays as officials try to track those people down through ancillary details.

• This issue has been addressed through a variety of means over the years, as many people have taken to carrying lists of emergency contacts (and vital medical details) in their purses and wallets, or wearing items such as bracelets and necklaces with such information engraved on them.

• Research shows more than 75 percent of people carry no details of who they would like telephoned following a serious accident.

• It's difficult to know who to call. Someone might have mom in their phone book but that doesn't mean they'd want them contacted in an emergency. Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with ICE it would be known immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The ICE person may even know of their medical history.

• Encourage your interested friends and colleagues to make an ICE entry in their cell phone, especially if it will give them peace of mind — but not at the expense of written emergency contact and medical information that should always be carried in their wallet.

• The plan requires no geographically-bound system or infrastructure to be in place; it will work wherever people adopt and publicize the practice.