Collaborative e-Health Environments: The enhanced role of health agents

Resumen

The literature has discussed the importance of the impact of Information and Communication Technology on health promotion,
health education and applications to promote change in health behaviors, denominated e-Health promotion. The objective of
this article is to describe Web 2.0 properties that should converge to a peer-to-peer collaboration platform, with the mediation of
a health agent. This Web 2.0 system should provide a space where people may, not only receive information, but also exchange
ideas and experiences about how to deal with the conditions resulting from the diseases caused by Zika virus, such as microcephaly. Microcephaly is a rare neurological condition in which the child’s head and brain are signifi cantly smaller than those
of others at the same age and sex and may cause a number of genetic or environmental problems. The risk of a Zika epidemic
is real, it mainly aff ects people in poor countries, and especially Brazil that has the social responsibility to face the challenge of
supporting hundreds of families of children born with microcephaly. E-Health projects are often focused only on health service
managers, practitioners and research partners. These projects are not of open access and, in Brazil, there is no public platform
that serves non-specialized citizens. We suggest a design that includes the health worker, family and stakeholders as content
creators, able to act peer-to-peer and bottom-up, which may be useful for developing countries with similar health contexts.