Czech emergency app Záchranka can now link to your prescription records

People using Czechia’s Záchranka emergency app can now connect it to their electronic prescription and vaccination records, potentially giving ambulance crews important information during an emergency.

The optional connection imports records from the national eRecept system into the app’s health profile, the State Institute for Drug Control, known as SÚKL, announced.

The feature builds on Záchranka’s existing ability to share a caller’s precise location and health information with emergency services. The app has been downloaded more than four million times, and more than 100 people use it to call an ambulance each day, according to founder Filip Maleňák.

The connection is not automatic. Users must actively enable it within Záchranka and sign in using Bank Identity or another accepted form of verified electronic identification.

Once authorized, information from eRecept appears in the app’s “zdravotní údaje,” or health information, section.

According to the announcement, the information remains on the user’s phone and is shared with emergency medical services only when the user contacts them through the app. Permission can be withdrawn at any time.

Maleňák said the connection allows a substantial part of the health profile to be populated, with the user’s consent, from a trusted source rather than entered manually.

There is an important distinction when calling for someone else: the app shares the caller’s records, not those of another patient. Someone using their phone to seek help for a relative or passerby should therefore be aware that their own linked profile is the one available through the app.

SÚKL Director Tomáš Boráň said access to relevant prescription information could help responders make faster decisions when time and reliable information are critical.

Záchranka’s principal advantage over a conventional phone call is its ability to transmit the caller’s precise location alongside information they have added to their health profile.

Its operators said in May that the app had helped in 220,000 emergency situations over its first decade.

Beyond contacting ambulance crews and firefighters, it provides first-aid instructions, a map of nearby automated external defibrillators and information about medical, dental and pharmacy services available outside normal hours.

Users can also receive regional emergency alerts and request psychosocial assistance during difficult situations.

In areas covered by the mountain rescue service, activating the emergency button also alerts mountain rescuers alongside emergency medical services.

The app operates in Czechia and several other European locations, including Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bavaria and Moldova. The newly announced eRecept connection adds Czech prescription and recorded vaccination information to its existing emergency tools.