‘Smart hospital’ planned to advance medical training

The Euromed University of Fes has unveiled a plan to build Africa’s first ‘smart hospital’ in a bid to advance its medical training, research and innovation.

The institution announced earlier in May that the University Hospital Centre (CHU) will be built by a consortium, Atelier d’Architecture El Ouali et Hajji et Associés, on a 30-hectare site.

The establishment of the CHU is part of the implementation plan to reform Morocco’s health system which focuses on, among other things, the integration of digital technologies into hospitals to facilitate knowledge management processes within complex healthcare institutions, as well as promoting e-medicine for educational and research purposes to optimise the quality of services in hospitals in Morocco.

No African country was included on the World’s Best Smart Hospitals 2025 list of the world’s leading institutions that integrate new digital health technologies into their work processes, including telemedicine, artificial intelligence and robotics.

‘Smart’ university hospital

The CHU will provide healthcare training and advance medical research and innovation, both in diagnosis and treatment. It is expected to be equipped with artificial intelligence, connected medical devices, big data analytics, real-time monitoring, robotics, and human-machine collaboration (cobotics) for surgery.

Cobotics refers to the field of robotics that focuses on designing robots to work alongside humans in a shared workspace.

The CHU will also set up digital platforms for training, simulation and international scientific collaboration that can support teaching and research activities. Partnerships will be established with some of the best university hospitals around the world to strengthen the training of students and healthcare professionals.

Increasing the number of health professionals

Moroccan Professor Mohammed Bakkali, based at the faculty of sciences of the University of Granada in Spain, told University World News: “Building a hospital is a significant thing anywhere in the world, and it is even more significant for an emerging country like Morocco as a tool for achieving sustainable development.

“Furthermore, a smart university hospital will have the added value of supporting medical research and offering training … to doctors and medics using e-medicine, as well as helping with the retention of the local health workforce,” said Bakkali, who is also a member of the scientific committee of the Journal of Innovation and Digital Health, or JIDH, published by the Moroccan Society of Digital Health.

Morocco aims to raise the number of health professionals from 18 health workers for every 10,000 citizens, which is well below the global average, to 45 per 10,000 people by 2030 to meet World Health Organization standards.

“Digital health is an essential tool for increasing the effectiveness of preventive and care actions, improving sustainability and increasing process efficiency,” Bakkali said.

Bakkali’s view is supported by an April 2025 study, ‘Digitalization and SDGs accounting: Evidence from the public healthcare sector’, which demonstrated the contribution of digital healthcare services to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thereby highlighting that practitioners and policy-makers could leverage their digital agenda in their efforts to meet SDGs.

Morocco ranked second among the top five African countries with the best digital quality of life after South Africa and followed by Mauritius, Egypt and Tunisia, according to the 2024 Surfshark Digital Quality of Life index which evaluated 121 countries based on five key pillars: internet affordability, internet quality, e-infrastructure, e-security, and e-government.

The platform Datareportal’s 2025 analysis of Morocco showed that, out of a Moroccan population of about 38.43 million, 35.3 million people or 92.2% of the total population have access to the internet.

A model for Africa?

“Judging by how Morocco is conquesting new frontiers in several aspects in Africa, it is becoming a model to follow for several African countries,” Bakkali said.

“A successful smart university hospital will not only benefit other African countries [by training their medical staff], it will also be a model to follow. I hope to see more initiatives like this,” he added.

With 85% of all international students in Morocco coming from other African countries, Morocco has become a popular destination for students from various French-speaking Sub-Saharan countries, according to a 2025 study titled, ‘Navigating Morocco’s Public Higher Education Landscape: Characteristics, endeavours & setbacks’.

Morocco was ranked third among the top five most influential African countries after Egypt and South Africa, and followed by Algeria and Nigeria, according to the 2024 Global Soft Power Index which evaluates soft power strength based on higher education and science capabilities, among other indicators.