ICE was actually started in Eurpoe.

Somebody who was a paramedic for 13 years subbmitted a concept to Vodaphone as a concept for their annual live saver awards. In his application he said that 75% of the people they come across do not have any contact information on them for emergencies, and even if they have a phone with mum as an entry, they do not know if the person wants mum to be called.

How he came about the idea
http://www.ice4safety.com/sitebuilde...nthemaking.pdf

It's a tool, I don't believe anybody has ever said it's the only tool. There are also many other tools that serve to convey the information should it be needed (probably more frequently by the hospital then by the people at the scene), but my thought is should I ever need somebody to find my emergency contact information, it's not going to hurt me to have it in my wallet and on the phone and where ever else it is located. I don't know where they will look first, I don't know if my wallet or phone will still be with me, so it's not a huge deal to have it in more then one place.

Some of the phone companies has totally embraced it, on mine for example the ICE entry is the first entry in the phone book so there's no scrolling to find it.