IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The developing world and emerging countries such as China and India are far ahead of the U.S. and Europe in creating services available to mobile phone users -- providing technology-based empowerment (or e-empowerment) to customers who typically fall outside of formal sectors such as banking.

Mobile services such as sharing credits, providing cash, paying bills, supporting small and medium (SME's) enterprises, and sharing health information from HIV/AIDS to prenatal care -- all have become the order of the day for many in the developing world. In fact mobile phones in Africa, China, and Asia have become cradles of innovation for mobile services; mobile phones are used less for talking, and more today as platforms to support daily living, and improving quality of life. Today nearly half of the world's population has access to mobile phones, both pre-paid and post-paid services, growing from fewer than 1 billion in 2000 to over 6 billion, of which nearly 5 billion units are in the developing world.

Read more: Mobile Services and E-Empowerment -- The Developing World Has the Advantage

The use of e-health technologies, including mobile health, is spreading rapidly in low- and medium-income countries around the world, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). In part, this is because the use of mobile phones and computers is growing in these developing nations, the report said. But less than a quarter of the surveyed health programs used e-health technologies, and their reliance on private donors -- which provided nearly half of their financing -- is one factor limiting their expansion, the WHO report said.

The data on which the report is based comes from the Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI), which has been collecting information on public and private programs likely to improve health in developing countries since 2007. Due to the unreliability of government data, the WHO report focuses exclusively on private-sector programs.

Read more: E-health technologies spreading in developing nations

Healthcare stakeholders are starting to understand more about the varying role telemedicine plays in improving healthcare delivery and removing stress for patients across the globe.

While wireless enablement creates a number of important advantages for providers and patients no matter where they live, the focus on how telemedicine benefits communities is often different in Third World countries than it is industrialized countries, like the United States.

Read more: 4 telemedicine lessons Third World can teach industrialized countries

eHealth refers to the use of information and communication technology in the provision of healthcare services.

Countries around the world are turning towards eHealth to enhance healthcare service delivery and Pakistan should do likewise, said speakers on the closing day of the International Conference on eHealth at the University of Health Sciences on Sunday.

Developing countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Kenya and Rwanda have taken steps towards revolutionising their health sector through the use of eHealth, which refers to the use of information and communication technology in the provision of healthcare services.

Read more: ‘eHealth critical for developing countries’