Data Migration
Bring your patients, doctors, visits, payments and files over from your previous clinic software
Moving from another clinic system? Bring your data into Docistra, then review and import it from Dashboard → Data migration. Nothing is added to your clinic until you press Import yourself.
Only owners and managers can open Data migration.
How it works
Bring the data in
Use the Chrome extension for a web-based system, or upload files (Excel, CSV, a database backup, or photos of paper records). The data waits in a holding area; nothing touches your patients or appointments yet.
Review
Docistra works out what each table is and which column goes where, and shows a preview: what will be added, what is already in Docistra, and what would be skipped and why.
Import
If the preview looks right, press Import on its card. You can then ask the assistant to check the result.
1. Bring your data in
From a web-based system: the Chrome extension
The Docistra Chrome extension reads your old system for you. You show it a few screens once (about 3 minutes), it tries 3 patients so you can check them here, then it moves everything by itself: patients, doctors, visits, procedures, payments, files and your price list. It only reads, and never changes anything in the old system.
Press Get the Chrome extension on Data migration, then follow the Chrome extension guide.
From a desktop program or paper: upload files
Press Upload files and pick one or more files:
- An export from your old program: Excel (.xlsx), CSV, or a SQLite database backup. The file is read in your browser and only its rows are sent. Save old .xls and Access files as .xlsx or CSV first.
- Photos or PDFs of paper records: patient files, notebooks, forms or receipts, handwritten or printed, in any layout (up to 40 MB and 400 pages per file). On a phone the same button opens the camera. Docistra reads each page and sorts what it finds into patients, visits, procedures and payments. A page about one patient is also saved in that patient's files.
Handwriting can be misread, so check a few rows in the preview before you import. If a page can't be read, photograph it again in better light and upload it again.
History kept outside the old system
Procedures or payments written on paper, or typed into Excel, can be added after you import the old system. They are linked to patients by phone number. A procedure or payment on a day the patient has no visit gets a past visit on that day. If the clinic has several doctors, give the sheet a doctor column.
For dental clinics, a Tooth column (36, or 14, 15, 16) and a Surfaces column (MO, MOD) put the work on the patient's tooth chart, and an Amount paid column next to each procedure becomes a payment for that visit.
2. Review and import
Open Dashboard → Data migration. The Summary shows what arrived: pages sent, tables found, and a card per type with how many were found, added, already there, waiting, skipped or failed.
Talk to the assistant below, or tap a suggestion such as شوف البيانات اللي وصلت وقولي فيها إيه (Look at what arrived and tell me what's in it). It:
- shows how each table was sorted: which Docistra field each column fills, with an example value (data the extension read usually arrives already sorted)
- leaves out rows that aren't clinic records (menus, headers, totals)
- previews each import: Will be added, Already in Docistra, Will be skipped and Will fail, with reasons
- points out what looks missing
To import, press the button on a preview card. Import in this order: doctors, then patients, then appointments, then procedures and payments, then files, since each is linked to the ones before it. The assistant never imports anything by itself.
After an import, ask the assistant to check it (اتأكد إن كل حاجة اتنقلت صح). It compares what arrived with what is now in Docistra and explains any difference.
If an import fails, nothing changes and you can try again.
What is imported
| Data | Details |
|---|---|
| Patients | Name, phone, gender, date of birth or age, insurance, allergies, chronic conditions, current medications, medical history, referral source |
| Doctors | Name, specialty, consultation and follow-up prices |
| Visits | Date and time, patient, doctor, status, visit type, notes, diagnosis, complaint |
| Procedures | The procedures done in each visit |
| Payments | Patients' payments, linked to their visit |
| Files | Attachments, x-rays and documents, saved in the patient's files |
| Services | Your services and procedures list with the old prices. A procedure you already have with the same name gets the old price. |
Settings of the old system (payment methods and the like) are not moved.
How duplicates are handled
- Patients are matched by phone number, then by name. A patient already in Docistra is not added again; only details missing from their record (such as gender or date of birth) are filled in.
- A new name on a phone number that already belongs to a patient is added as a family member of that patient, the same way family accounts work elsewhere in Docistra.
- Doctors are matched by name.
- Appointments are matched by patient and start time.
- You can bring in more data and import again at any time: only what is new is added.
Appointments
- Past appointments are imported as history: completed, cancelled or no-show. They don't count toward your plan's bookings or your trial, and patients get no messages about them.
- Upcoming appointments are imported as booked, and patients get your clinic's normal reminder before the visit.
- An appointment whose patient isn't in Docistra yet creates that patient.
- An appointment whose doctor can't be found isn't imported. Import your doctors first, or check the doctor's name.
Doctors and your plan
Doctors beyond your plan's limit are added as inactive. Activate them from Doctors after upgrading, or deactivate another doctor first.