Brazil Smart Hospital Project
Brazil
Proposed
Social Infrastructure
Quick Facts
More About This Project
Brazil’s Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde or SUS) is one of the largest public healthcare systems in the world. Despite achievements made since inception of SUS, there are challenges stemming from regional disparities, an aging population with growing healthcare needs, underinvestment and slow technological adoption hampered by a fragmented innovation ecosystem which inhibits adoption of scalable solutions. These challenges are especially pronounced in high-complexity care and in densely populated regions.
The Project entails the construction of a model smart public hospital, specializing in emergency medicine, intensive care and neurology. Successful implementation of this pilot project will allow replication of the model across the country. For the pilot, one of the oldest academic clinics in Brazil, the University of São Paulo’s Hospital das Clínicas, has been selected.
The São Paulo metropolitan area, home to over 20 million people, has only 2.1 hospital beds per 1,000 inhabitants as compared to the minimum recommended 2.5 beds, resulting in a shortfall of approximately 8,600 beds. The Project envisages a new 150,000 sq. m facility that will include 800 beds and 30 surgical rooms, host a national centre for translational research and integrate advanced medical technologies, telemedicine services and AI-based scheduling systems to optimise patient flow. The hospital will also be built according to international green standards.
The Project aims to improve access to high-complexity healthcare and strengthen Brazil’s capacity to deliver efficient, technology-enabled public health services which aligns with its National Health Plan 2024–27. The smart hospital’s outcomes will include treating up to 190,000 inpatients and 60,000 outpatients annually, reducing patients’ length of stay, waiting times and mortality rates, and cutting operational costs per bed.