AUTHOR=El Otmani Dehbi Zineb , Sedrati Hayat , Chaqsare Souad , Idrissi Azami Abdellah , Merzouki Mohamed , Raji Mourad , Rhalem Wajih , Al Idrissi Najib , Nejjari Chakib , Amzazi Saaïd , Ghazal Hassan TITLE=Moroccan Digital Health Response to the COVID-19 Crisis JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health VOLUME=9 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.690462 DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2021.690462 ISSN=2296-2565 ABSTRACT=

The COVID-19 pandemic and the draconian measures applied to limit its spread have accelerated the process of digitalizing many activities, including those within the health sector. In Morocco, a developing country in northern Africa, digital health has been deployed extensively, and in a remarkable way, to support the management of the current health crisis. Morocco is taking significant measures to become a key player in the process of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) goal 3. The government has comprehensively integrated digital technology throughout its coordinated containment and mitigation processes. These processes encompass testing and diagnostics; virus genomic surveillance; telecare of suspected and chronic patients; COVID-19 patient contact tracing and tracking; a laboratory information system for medical material dispatching, biological sample collection, and data processing nationwide; and smart vaccination management. Moreover, the pace of amending legislation for enabling efficient telemedicine practice has been achieved at a record-breaking. The successful implementation of all of these digital health strategies testify to the effectiveness of digitalization for managing the health aspects of the pandemic and for the future development of health systems in Morocco and in the African continent, where digital health and telemedicine is set to become the cornerstone of medical practice.