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As I've mentioned here on the blog, I look forward to the day I can leave my iPhone in my car or at my house when I go running.

And though I'm reasonably healthy, far too many "reasonably healthy" people are hit by cars or suffer some sort of other medical emergency. It's not common, but it happens enough that if you can spend $20 to help medical professionals dealing with an unknown person (no wallet, no phone), you do it.

There are a few products out there which do this. Prior to today I'd only ever heard of Road ID. Road ID is a wrist band you can wear which lists your name, your medical emergencies, and names and phone numbers for your "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) contacts.

Just today I found what I consider a better solution: the 1BandID. Rather than being a separate wrist band, the 1BandID clips to your watch (like my Garmin ForeRunner 610). If it's essentially permanently affixed to your watch, you're far less likely to forget it or leave it at home, and that's kind of the point of having a little ID and information on you out in the world.

The one downside? Road ID has a nice system which lets you store your emergency information online. This lets you list more information than you can fit on the ID itself and it lets you update the information as frequently as you wish. I wish 1BandID did that, but at the same time, I'm not sure how many emergency personnel are going to log in to a website to get your medical information.

1BandID has a Facebook page here. I got the image above from this woman's blog. And finally, there's a good review from the "gadget guy" of the running/cycling/swimming world, Ray Maker here.As for what to put on the thing, I think I like lines 1-5 (below). I'd like to put something on line six, but I'm not sure what. I've included my wife's number, my birth year, and my one medical allergy.

Erik J. Barzeski (1978)
Erie, PA USA - Team SNP
ICE: Carey - ###-###-####
ICE: Dave - ###-###-####
PCN ALLERGY, BLOOD O+

The lines need to be 25 characters or less. Line six will drive me nuts, too, until I finally decide on something, even if that "something" is nothing. That's the way I'm leaning right now.

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