They seem like a good idea to me. If there are things that you CANNOT tolerate that would probably be done to you in a life &death emergency with you unconscious, then they are an excellent idea. (i.e. allergic to penicillin) Some years before Mom got her lung cancer, she fell down (I lived about 30' away) she called me and I persuaded her to go down with me to the emergency room. So I stood behind her as the triage nurse says What's wrong? and she answered. Next question. What medications are you taking now? We grinned to each other as she went into her purse and pulled out the typed card that, by no coincidence, was immediately in back of her Medicare card, and handed that over. Nurse copies that down. Next question: What medications are you allergic to? And our faces fell-- we hadn't thought of THAT one. So down the road when things got rougher we had a one-page medical history, current meds, Medicate numbers, Social Security numbers, address and Known Allergies (that phrase was suggested by a lawyer) which we handed over on request. Saved a lot of time. I like to think it contributed to quality of life too.