mHealth Initiative, Inc. (mHI), which arrives as the natural successor to the Mobile Healthcare Alliance (MoHCA), recently unveiled its comprehensive plan for cost control and improved healthcare through mobile device-based information technology. The Boston-based not-for-profit organization envisions the development of a wide range of healthcare applications on cell phones and other mobile devices and cites them as the future conduit of interoperability for essential health information

Released earlier this week, the report comes in response to ongoing concerns over the state of the nation’s healthcare system and offers what the organization’s leadership says is a new approach that goes beyond technology solutions to address healthcare delivery itself. This plan will be among the topics addressed at mHI’s Spring Seminar, scheduled for March 31 in Boston.

In a nutshell, the proposal calls for an approach called “participatory health,” where patients, consumers, healthcare and wellness providers, payers, and other stakeholders function as partners in keeping people healthy through education, simplified communications, wellness programs and improved healthcare delivery.

The first model demonstration is slated to take place in Greater Boston this year, with a goal of impacting national considerations for reducing costs and improving the quality of care.

The plan itself emphasizes both active participation among health care consumers and patients through increased education on the benefits of managing one’s health affairs, as well as the role improved communication will play among patients, providers and other healthcare stakeholders through the use of cell phones and other mobile communication devices.

It’s this critical shift to e-communication which mHI feels will open the door to reduced face-to-face visits, cost reductions and, ultimately, new opportunities for different business models and new revenue streams.

The plan also calls for new communication-based disease management programs that would  drastically reduce emergency and office visits, cutting healthcare costs in the process.

In addition, it highlights the need for consumers to carry a copy of their personal health record  information safely and securely on their cell phones, since such information can be forwarded with insurance data and the patient’s agenda directly to a provider in advance of a visit, improving efficiency and minimizing costs.

The plan even hits on substantially reducing administrative costs by e-mailing and texting patients about appointments and other administrative matters.

All in all, the plan makes sense on a number of levels. The question is: will this plan find its mark among Washington’s health reformers?