Medical ID jewellery has existed for decades. Asper London is changing how much useful information it can carry.
Traditional medical alert jewellery can tell someone that you have a medical condition, allergy or take a particular medication.
But in an emergency, sometimes the name of a condition is only the beginning of the story.
What information should a medical ID contain?
Consider someone living with Addison's disease who becomes seriously unwell.
Knowing they have Addison's immediately provides important context. In a suspected adrenal crisis, clinical guidance recommends that hydrocortisone is given without delay rather than waiting for diagnostic tests.¹
But there may be other useful information too.
What steroid replacement do they usually take? What dose? Have they recently increased it because they have been unwell? Who is their endocrinology team?
A traditional engraved bracelet has limited space to communicate that level of detail.
A digital Medical ID can hold considerably more.
Sometimes the exact medication matters
Now consider someone taking an anticoagulant who experiences a head injury.
Knowing they take an anticoagulant is important. Knowing which one provides much more useful clinical context.
Warfarin, dabigatran, apixaban and rivaroxaban are different medicines and their management in the event of serious bleeding can differ.
Information such as the name of the medication, dose, when it was last taken and why it was prescribed can therefore be valuable to the healthcare professionals assessing the patient.
A small engraving saying on anticoagulants simply cannot contain all of that information.
A diagnosis doesn't tell you someone's whole medical history
The same applies to epilepsy.
If someone is confused or unresponsive following a seizure, knowing they have epilepsy provides important context.
But it doesn't tell you which anti-seizure medications they take, their dosage, what their usual seizure pattern looks like or who normally manages their care.
That additional information can help healthcare professionals understand the person behind the diagnosis.
Even an allergy can need more explanation
Take a penicillin allergy.
There is an important difference between someone who previously experienced a gastrointestinal side effect after taking penicillin and someone with a documented history of a serious allergic reaction.
NICE recommends recording details about suspected drug allergies, including the drug involved, the signs and symptoms experienced and the severity of the reaction.
In other words, allergic to penicillin may not tell the whole story.
A clinician may need more than a label
This is the limitation Asper London is designed to address.
Traditional medical ID jewellery provides a label. Asper connects that jewellery to a more detailed digital Medical ID.
An Asper Medical ID can contain information the wearer chooses to add, including:
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Medical conditions
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Medications and doses
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Allergies
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Relevant medical history
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Emergency contacts
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Healthcare and follow-up information
The jewellery connects to the wearer's Medical ID using discreet scannable technology. No battery or charging is required for the jewellery itself, and someone accessing the shared Medical ID does not need to have the Asper app installed.
It means the physical piece of jewellery doesn't have to carry someone's entire medical history.
It simply provides the connection to it.
Medical ID jewellery, updated for today
The original idea behind medical ID jewellery was a good one: give someone important information when the wearer may not be able to communicate it themselves.
The limitation has always been space.
There is only so much you can engrave onto the back of a bracelet, necklace or tag.
Technology gives us the opportunity to rethink that.
Asper London combines medical ID jewellery with a digital Medical ID, allowing the wearer to carry more of the information they choose to share without trying to fit it onto the jewellery itself.
Because sometimes knowing the diagnosis is enough to start the conversation.
But it isn't the whole story.
The medical ID was never the wrong idea. It was the right idea, waiting for technology to catch up.
