What a Moroccan physician can — and cannot — publish online
Many Moroccan practitioners hesitate to develop their online presence for fear of an ethics breach — and they are right to be careful: the framework exists, it is strict, and it is enforced. But the opposite conclusion ("so I'll do nothing") is a mistake: the Code of Medical Ethics does not forbid existing online, it forbids advertising. That distinction changes everything.
This article is a plain-language overview meant to offer general bearings — it replaces neither the texts themselves nor the advice of your Council of the Order or a lawyer for a specific case.
The framework: two texts to know
Law 131-13 on the practice of medicine, and the Code of Medical Ethics of the medical profession, in force since February 2022 (published in Official Bulletin no. 7066), which modernized a text dating from 1953 — notably on communication. The general philosophy is constant: medicine is not a business; the physician informs, they do not sell themselves.
What is allowed: factual information
- Your name, titles and qualifications actually held — degrees, specialty, registrations.
- Your contact details, hours, consultation languages, appointment arrangements.
- The procedures and care you genuinely provide, described plainly.
- A professional website presenting your background accurately and verifiably.
- Health information and education content — careful, accurate, sourced, and which does not turn into disguised promotion of your practice.
What is prohibited: promotion
- Superlatives and comparisons: "the best", "the most experienced", "unique in Morocco".
- Promised outcomes, unverifiable success rates, sensationalist before/after images.
- Touting: promotional offers, loss-leader prices, commercial incentives.
- Orchestrated testimonials and fabricated or bought reviews.
- Anything that discloses information covered by medical confidentiality — including in a simple reply to a Google review.
The common pitfalls we encounter in audits
The most frequent one is not the deliberate breach: it is content produced by third parties. "Sponsored" articles written by careless providers who present you as "the city's reference" alongside your prices, directories that invent descriptions, pages created without your consent. In terms of ethics, it is your name that is on the line — hence a simple rule: nothing should be published about you without your written approval. Require every provider to grant you a systematic right of review, and make compliance with the code a clause of the contract.
The good news
The ethics framework and modern algorithms converge: Google and AI assistants alike favor precisely the kind of content the code allows — factual, accurate, signed, sourced — and increasingly penalize what the code prohibits. Communicating properly is not a competitive handicap; it is the only strategy that is both legal and durable. That is the founding principle of our method.