UCLH recognised among world’s smartest hospitals

University College Hospital and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery have been named in Newsweek’s World’s Best Smart Hospitals list – a global ranking that celebrates hospitals leading the way in digital innovation and smart technology.

Published annually by Newsweek in partnership with Statista, this ranking recognises 350 leading hospitals across 30 countries for their excellence in implementing new technologies to improve patient care and operational efficiency.

Being included in this list is a significant achievement and reflects our commitment to embracing digital transformation to deliver world-class care.

UCLH chief executive David Probert said:

“We are proud to be recognised in Newsweek’s list of the World’s Best Smart Hospitals. It is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our teams who are embracing digital innovation to improve patient care and experience.

“We want to ensure that digital innovation continues to be adopted and used in the right way to support our staff, streamline services and deliver better outcomes for patients.”

Gill Gaskin, Medical Director, Digital Healthcare added:

“Our goal is to empower more patients by providing them with secure access to their health records, appointments, test results, the ability to update their health information from home, and in the future to schedule or modify their own appointments.

This saves time and reduces the need for follow-up phone calls to ask for results, clinic letters, or check appointment details.”

This recognition places UCLH among a select group of UK hospitals acknowledged for their digital maturity and innovation. It reinforces our position as leaders in healthcare transformation and highlights the impact of our ongoing efforts to integrate smart technologies into everyday clinical practice.

View the full list: World’s Best Smart Hospitals 2026

The ranking is based on recommendations from medical professionals, publicly available hospital quality metrics, patient satisfaction data, and a voluntary Patient Reported Outcome Measures implementation survey. A scoring model is used to calculate the overall hospital score, which determines the rank of the hospital receiving the award. The U.S. held onto the top spot with 103 hospitals on the list. Germany ranked second with 24 hospitals and the U.K. returned to third with 22 hospitals. More than 2,300 hospitals from around the globe were considered, including 484 in the U.S., 128 in the U.K. and 238 in Germany.