You run a private clinic or a medical centre, and you are about to choose software for it. What you want is to choose once, and not discover in month six that the booking is clumsy, the patient files are stuck inside someone else's system, or the bill keeps growing. This guide is a checklist you can carry into any demonstration, whether you are searching for "clinic management software Egypt", "برنامج إدارة عيادة" or "نظام حجز عيادات". The general method for comparing products is in How to compare business software on evidence, not on the demo; this article adds what is specific to a clinic.
General information, not legal or medical advice. Check legal points with a lawyer.
Step 1: Write down what your clinic actually does all day
Before looking at any product, list your own flows on one page: how a patient books today, what happens at reception, what the doctor records, how the fee is collected, and what you, the owner, wish you could see at the end of the week. A solo dermatologist and a six-doctor medical centre with a lab corner need very different things. If you cannot describe your day, every demonstration will look good.
Step 2: The decision checklist
Use these eight areas as rows. For each, ask the vendor to show it live, not describe it.
1. Booking (نظام حجز العيادات)
- Can a patient book without calling, from a phone, and can reception book by phone into the same calendar?
- Are doctor schedules, session lengths and days off configurable per doctor?
- Does it stop two people taking the same slot?
- Does it send reminders, and can you set cancellation rules? More on this in How to cut clinic no-shows without the phone running your day.
2. The patient file
- Is there one file per patient that holds history, allergies, chronic conditions, previous visits and attachments, searchable by name and phone?
- Can the doctor find the last visit in seconds, during the consultation?
- Who can open which file? A receptionist should not see everything a doctor sees.
- Does the system keep a record of who opened or changed a file?
3. Electronic prescription
- Does a consultation produce a printed or digital prescription from the file, with the patient's name and date already filled in?
- Can a past prescription be reissued or amended without retyping?
- Be precise about what the vendor means by "electronic prescription": one that is only printed from a template is not the same as one that reaches a pharmacy as a record. The patient's view is explained in electronic prescriptions: a patient guide. If a vendor says it connects to a national or insurance system, ask for the name of that system and a live example, and do not assume it.
4. Billing and reports
- Is the fee recorded at the visit, with a receipt, and does the day close against what was collected?
- Can you see, per doctor and per month, the number of patients, revenue, average per patient and the completion rate of appointments?
- Can you export the data to a spreadsheet for your accountant?
- If you issue tax invoices, ask how the product handles that. E-invoicing in Egypt explains what an accounting system must do.
5. Multi-branch and multi-doctor
- Can a second branch be added without a new contract and a new database?
- Can you see all branches together and each one separately?
- Can a patient who visits both branches keep one file?
- Even if you have one clinic today, ask what adding a branch costs.
6. Arabic and right-to-left
- Is the entire interface available in Arabic, laid out right to left, including printouts and patient-facing messages?
- Does searching work with Arabic spellings (for example أ / ا and ة / ه)? Type a few real patient names during the demonstration.
- Are prescriptions and receipts printable in Arabic without broken letters?
7. Data ownership, backups and exit
- Who owns the patient data? The contract should say you do.
- Where is the data stored: on your own server, on the vendor's, or in a cloud abroad? This matters for the legal point below.
- How often are backups taken, where are they kept, and has a restore ever been tested? Ask the vendor to restore a sample in front of you.
- On the day you leave, in what format do you get all your data, and at what price? Having software built: how to make sure you actually own and control it lists the contract clauses; the same logic applies to ready-made products.
8. Cost structure
Ask for the price in writing as a table: set-up, per doctor or per user, per branch, SMS or messaging, storage, support, training, upgrades, and the price in year two and year three. A low first-year price with per-message and per-user charges can end up costing more than a flat one. What business software really costs over five years gives the method, and Buying ready-made business software: what to settle before you sign lists what to settle before signing.
Step 3: Patient data and Egypt's Personal Data Protection Law
Health information is the most sensitive kind you hold, and Egypt has a law about it. This is what the text of Law No. 151 of 2020 says, from an English translation of the law; article numbers refer to the main text, not the short issuance articles (the official Arabic text in the Official Gazette is the authority; read both before relying on anything):
- Health data is "sensitive personal data". The definition covers data that reveals mental, psychological, physical or genetic health, along with biometric and financial data, and says children's data is always treated as sensitive (Article 1).
- Consent. Article 12 prohibits collecting, transferring, storing, retaining, processing or making available sensitive personal data without a licence from the Personal Data Protection Center. It also requires the data subject's written and explicit consent, except in cases the law expressly permits. For children, the parent's or guardian's consent is required.
- Breaches. Article 7 requires a controller or processor to notify the Center within 72 hours of becoming aware of a breach.
- Security. Article 13 requires security policies and procedures to prevent breaches of sensitive data.
- Data abroad. Article 14 prohibits transferring or storing personal data abroad unless the destination offers protection not less than the law's and the Center licenses or authorises it. Article 15 lists exceptions, including, with the person's explicit consent, preserving life and giving medical care.
- Penalties. Article 41 sets imprisonment of at least three months and a fine of EGP 500,000 to 5,000,000, or one of the two, for dealing with sensitive data without consent or outside the authorised cases.
- Rights. Patients can access their data, withdraw consent, and ask for correction or deletion (Article 2).
What we could not verify here is how the Center currently issues licences to clinics, and what the Executive Regulations require in detail; those have to come from the Center or your lawyer. Turn the law into questions for the vendor: Where is our data stored, and is it inside Egypt? Who at the vendor can open it? Is there a log of access? How would you notify us of a breach, and how fast? Can we export or delete a patient's data on request? Do you hold any licence or authorisation required, and what falls on us as the clinic?
Step 4: Test it with a trial before you commit
A demonstration is the vendor's best day. A trial is yours. Run this test with real work, using fake patient names if the trial is not covered by an agreement on data:
- Enter one day of your actual schedule for two doctors, including a walk-in, a cancellation and a double-booking attempt.
- Register a patient with an Arabic name, issue a prescription, print it, and reopen the file the next day.
- Collect two fees, one partial, close the day, and check the report against your cash.
- Ask the least technical person at reception to do all of the above without help. If they cannot, your staff will not use it.
- Request an export of everything you entered. Open it in a spreadsheet.
- Ask for the names of two clinics of your size and speciality using it, and phone them.
Score each of the eight areas from 0 to 2, and write the total next to the price. The cheapest product with a low score is not the cheapest.
When to choose ready-made, and when to have something built
A ready-made product fits if your clinic works like most clinics. Consider a custom system only if a specific part of your workflow, for example a particular speciality's file layout or a referral flow with partner labs, is something no product does. Do not decide this before you finish the trial.
The next step
Print the eight-row checklist, add your own price table, and book two demonstrations and one trial in the same week so the products can be compared while you remember them. Softwiro's MyClinic (صحتي) is one option you can include; its record lists booking by speciality and location, a patient medical file, electronic prescriptions, clinic and doctor financial reports, and Arabic with right-to-left layout. It does not list a free trial, and its listed features do not include integration with health-ministry platforms or insurance companies, so ask about those. If you want a second opinion on your shortlist, send us your checklist.
Sources
- Law No. 151 of 2020, Personal Data Protection Law (English translation) — Andersen Egypt. The definition of sensitive data including health, and Articles 2, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 41. A translation; the Arabic text in the Official Gazette prevails.
- Translation of Law No. 151 of 2020 — Mondaq. A summary confirming that explicit consent is generally required, the existence of the Personal Data Protection Center, and that an unofficial translation is not the authority.
- Personal Data Protection Center portal — Egypt. The Center's portal, where licensing and executive-regulation information should be confirmed; the page we opened showed only its title.