Dr. Rachid El Moussaoui

Dr. Rachid El Moussaoui is a senior interventional cardiologist at CHU Ibn Rochd — the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire of Casablanca — one of North Africa's largest and most technically advanced teaching hospitals. With 23 years of cardiology practice, he has established himself as one of Morocco's most experienced interventional cardiologists, with particular expertise in the catheter-based treatment of coronary artery disease.

Trained in both Morocco and France, Dr. El Moussaoui bridges the North African and European cardiology communities. His fellowship at Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard in Paris exposed him to a very high volume of complex percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) cases, and he returned to Morocco with a command of interventional technique that he has applied and refined over two subsequent decades of cath lab practice at CHU Ibn Rochd. He is one of the hospital's principal operators for primary PCI in STEMI — the emergency catheterisation procedure that reopens blocked coronary arteries during heart attacks — a service that has materially improved outcomes for heart attack patients across the Casablanca region.

Beyond his interventional work, Dr. El Moussaoui leads an outpatient cardiology clinic managing a large panel of patients with heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and valvular disease. He is actively involved in the cardiology residency training programme at CHU Ibn Rochd and is a recognised figure within the Société Marocaine de Cardiologie, where he contributes to national guideline working groups.

Dr. El Moussaoui completed his Doctorat en Médecine at the Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie of the Université Hassan II in Casablanca, one of Morocco's premier medical schools. He subsequently undertook specialist cardiology training within the same university system, completing a DES (Diplôme d'Etudes Spécialisées) in Cardiology — a structured specialist residency programme that covered both general and interventional cardiac medicine.

Following his DES, Dr. El Moussaoui was awarded a competitive fellowship in interventional cardiology at Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard in Paris, one of France's leading university hospitals with an internationally recognised cardiac catheterisation programme. This fellowship provided immersive training in coronary angiography, PCI, stenting of complex lesions (bifurcations, chronic total occlusions, left main disease), and pacemaker implantation under the supervision of European-trained senior interventionalists.

He returned to Morocco to join CHU Ibn Rochd's cardiology department, where he has since trained successive generations of Moroccan cardiologists. He regularly attends the annual congresses of the Société Marocaine de Cardiologie and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), keeping his practice aligned with the latest evidence-based cardiology guidelines.

Dr. El Moussaoui's interventional expertise is centred on percutaneous coronary intervention. He performs diagnostic coronary angiograms via both radial and femoral access, and undertakes PCI for a full range of coronary lesion complexities — including bifurcation stenting, chronic total occlusion (CTO) recanalization, and left main interventions. He is one of a small number of operators in Morocco with extensive CTO PCI experience, a technically demanding subspecialty that requires dedicated training and high case volume.

In the acute setting, Dr. El Moussaoui is a lead operator for primary PCI in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), working within CHU Ibn Rochd's 24-hour heart attack service. Rapid, effective primary PCI — opening the blocked artery within the 90-minute door-to-balloon target — is the international gold standard for STEMI treatment, and he has helped establish and maintain this service at the hospital.

His outpatient practice encompasses the full spectrum of cardiology, including echocardiography (transthoracic and transoesophageal), stress testing, heart failure management with advanced pharmacotherapy, and the long-term care of patients with atrial fibrillation requiring anticoagulation and rate or rhythm control. He also implants single- and dual-chamber pacemakers for patients with symptomatic bradyarrhythmias. Cardiac rehabilitation programme oversight is an important part of his post-PCI patient management, contributing to long-term outcomes following revascularisation.

Dr. El Moussaoui has been involved in clinical research within the cardiology department of CHU Ibn Rochd, including retrospective analyses of STEMI treatment times and PCI outcomes at the hospital, and prospective registries of heart failure patients admitted to the coronary care unit. He has presented work at the annual congresses of the Société Marocaine de Cardiologie and at joint North African cardiology symposia convened by the African Society of Cardiology.

His contributions to Moroccan cardiology extend to participation in the SMC's national guideline committees, where he has helped adapt European Society of Cardiology guidelines to the Moroccan and North African clinical context — accounting for differences in patient demographics, prevalent risk factors, and available pharmacological and procedural resources. He has also co-authored clinical protocols for CHU Ibn Rochd's cath lab, which have been adopted by other Moroccan university hospitals as reference documents. He maintains an active interest in the long-term outcomes of PCI versus medical therapy in the Moroccan coronary artery disease population.

Morocco has developed into a significant medical tourism destination, particularly for patients from sub-Saharan Africa seeking specialist care at lower cost than European centres, and for Moroccans residing in Europe who prefer to combine a family visit with specialist consultation. CHU Ibn Rochd has infrastructure for receiving international patients, and Dr. El Moussaoui has experience managing patients referred from West and Central Africa as well as from the Moroccan diaspora in France, Belgium, Spain, and Italy.

He conducts consultations in Arabic, French, and English, making him accessible to a broad international patient base. For patients considering cardiac procedures in Casablanca, he provides a comprehensive pre-procedure evaluation including echocardiography and coronary angiography, with a transparent discussion of risks, benefits, and expected outcomes. Post-procedure, he provides detailed discharge reports and follow-up protocols in the language of the patient's choice to facilitate continuity of care with cardiologists in the patient's home country.

Casablanca's Royal Air Maroc hub provides direct connections to many major African, European, and Middle Eastern cities, making CHU Ibn Rochd geographically accessible for medical travellers from across a wide catchment area.

Dr. El Moussaoui has been recognised by the Société Marocaine de Cardiologie for his contributions to interventional cardiology training and to the development of primary PCI services in Morocco. He is a dual member of both the SMC and the Société Française de Cardiologie, reflecting his bicultural medical training and his continued engagement with the French-speaking cardiology community.

He has been acknowledged by CHU Ibn Rochd's academic leadership for his dual contributions as a clinical cardiologist and as a trainer of specialist residents, maintaining a teaching clinic that has produced a significant number of Morocco's currently practising cardiologists. His work establishing and sustaining primary PCI for STEMI at CHU Ibn Rochd is considered a landmark contribution to Moroccan cardiac care — a service that did not previously exist in Casablanca in its current form and which has demonstrably reduced mortality from acute heart attacks in the hospital's catchment population.