There’s no shortage of attention being paid to mHealth technologies in this country and other parts of the industrialized world.

But there’s an argument to be made that mHealth’s most dramatic impact may come in developing countries where technologies that westerners often take for granted have long been scarce.

Two final-day keynoters at last week's 2012 mHealth Summit highlighted just how important mHealth technologies can be to the developing world. 

Speaking to a packed ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center on Dec. 5, Nafis Sadik, former head of the United Nations Population Fund and a current board member of the UN Foundation, pointed out that not so long ago, technology meant little more than the availability of land-line telephones in poor areas of developing countries. Now, she pointed out, there are 107 million cellphones in her native Pakistan alone.

She highlighted the potential of mobile technology to spread a range of healthcare services – in particular, services for poor girls and women in rural areas – where logistics have traditionally been difficult.

Following Sadik’s lead, Ariel Pablos-Méndez, assistant administrator for global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), described how quickly mHealth technology has been accepted. Only four years ago, he pointed out, when the mHealth Alliance was formed, editors at Wikipedia rejected an attempt to include the term “mHealth” in the online encyclopedia, calling it a “neologism” that hadn’t gained enough widespread acceptance to be listed.

But Pablos-Méndez said that from the perspective of USAID, which has been operating in more than 80 countries for more than 50 years, “mHealth can help change the way health systems operate.”

In particular, he said, “mHealth can serve as a tool to ensure that everyone can have access to appropriate care at an affordable cost.”

For example, he explained, mHealth technology is playing a major role in USAID’s “Better than Cash Alliance,” a program that is seeking to introduce electronic payment opportunities into traditionally cash-strapped regions.

Another program he described is the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA), a program co-founded by USAID and Johnson & Johnson that aims to deliver vital health information to new and expectant mothers through mobile phones.

“mHealth can empower with information,” Pablos-Méndez said, “and it can help spread evidence-based practices throughout the developing world.”