Specialists Feature
Medical professionals who conduct appointments and complete clinical notes.
What this enables
Team management: Add doctors, therapists, and nurses to your clinic with their bio, photo, and professional credentials displayed to patients.
Scheduling profiles: Each specialist has their own availability (Mon 9am-5pm, Tue 2pm-8pm), timezone, and can work multiple clinics.
Public profiles: Patients see specialist names, titles, and bios when booking (e.g., "Dr. Smith, MD — Cardiologist").
Role-based access: Specialists with a login account can view their own patients and appointments, complete clinical notes, but see nothing from colleagues.
Licensing verification: Track professional licenses with expiration dates. The platform alerts clinic admins when a license is about to expire and can restrict a specialist's ability to accept bookings if their license lapses.
How it works
- Admin adds a specialist: Name, title, timezone, photo, bio
- Admin enters license details: License number, issuing body, expiration date
- Admin sets availability: "Available Mon-Fri 9-5 in Europe/Bucharest timezone"
- Admin assigns to services: "Dr. Smith can do Cardiology consultations"
- Admin optionally links user: Creates login credentials so specialist can access the app
- Patients book: See Dr. Smith's profile, choose a time from her available slots
- Specialist works: Logs in, completes appointment notes, sees only their own patients
Licensing & Credentials
The platform tracks specialist professional licenses to help clinics meet their legal obligations. Under Romanian law (Legea 95/2006), healthcare practitioners must be registered with their professional body and hold a valid practicing license (aviz de liberă practică).
What the platform tracks
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| License number | The official registration number from the professional body |
| Issuing body | Which professional body issued the license (e.g., OBBCSSR for kinesitherapists, CMR for physicians, OAMGMAMR for nurses) |
| Issue date | When the license was issued |
| Expiration date | When the license expires and must be renewed |
| License document | Uploaded copy of the license (PDF or image, stored in S3) |
| Verification status | pending, verified, expired — managed manually by the clinic admin |
How it works
- Admin enters license details when adding or editing a specialist
- Platform tracks expiration — when a license is approaching expiration (configurable: 30/60/90 days), the system sends alerts to the clinic admin via the automations system
- Expired license warning — when a license expires, the specialist's profile shows a warning badge visible to admins. Optionally, the clinic can configure automatic booking suspension — the specialist stops appearing in booking flows until their license is renewed.
- Audit trail — all license changes (added, updated, renewed) are recorded in the audit log
What the platform does NOT do
- The platform does not verify licenses directly with professional bodies (OBBCSSR, CMR, etc.) — there is no API for this in Romania. Verification is the clinic admin's responsibility.
- The platform does not block clinical actions based on license status — a specialist with an expired license can still access existing patient records (for continuity of care). Only new bookings can be suspended.
- The platform stores licenses as documentation, not as a legal certification. The clinic is ultimately responsible for ensuring their specialists are properly licensed.
Regulatory context
| Country | Requirement | Professional Bodies |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | Legea 95/2006 — healthcare practitioners must hold a valid aviz de liberă practică from their professional body | OBBCSSR (kinesitherapists), CMR (physicians), OAMGMAMR (nurses/midwives), CMDR (dentists) |
| EU (general) | Each member state has its own licensing requirements; the platform's licensing fields are generic enough to support any country's requirements | |
| US (future) | State-level licensing with NPI numbers — same tracking model applies |
Technical Reference
Overview
Specialists represent healthcare providers in the RestartiX Platform system. A specialist is a medical professional who can conduct appointments with patients. Each specialist can have one or more specialties, a scheduling profile for booking appointments, and an associated user account for login access.
What Specialists Are
Specialists are healthcare providers (doctors, therapists, nurses, etc.) who:
- Conduct appointments with patients
- Complete clinical forms (analysis, advice, prescriptions, reports)
- Have their own scheduling profiles (availability, timezone, working hours)
- Can be associated with one or more medical specialties
- May have a linked user account for system access
Relationship to Users
Specialists can optionally be linked to a user account via the user_id foreign key:
- With user account (
user_idis set): The specialist can log into the system with rolespecialist. They can view and manage their own appointments, complete forms, and access patient records associated with their appointments. - Without user account (
user_idis NULL): The specialist exists in the system for scheduling and record-keeping purposes but cannot log in. Useful for external providers or staff who don't need system access.
The user_id link is stored on the specialists table and enforced with ON DELETE SET NULL (if the user is deleted, the specialist record remains but loses login access).
Scheduling Profile
Every specialist has an optional scheduling profile that enables public booking. The scheduling profile is stored directly on the specialists table:
Scheduling Columns (from scheduling/ feature)
scheduling_timezone(VARCHAR, nullable): The specialist's IANA timezone (e.g.,America/New_York,Europe/Bucharest). All scheduling calculations (weekly hours, overrides) are performed in this timezone. When NULL, the specialist has no scheduling profile and cannot be booked.scheduling_active(BOOLEAN, default TRUE): Whenfalse, the specialist does not appear in booking flows even if they have weekly hours configured.
Related Tables (from scheduling feature)
specialist_weekly_hours: Recurring availability blocks by day of week (e.g., Mon 9:00-17:00, Tue 14:00-20:00). These are the specialist's DEFAULT hours.specialist_schedule_overrides: Date-specific exceptions (vacations, extra hours, holidays). Applies to ALL calendars the specialist is assigned to.calendar_specialists: Assignment to specific calendars with optionaloverride_weekly_hoursJSONB. When set, completely replaces the specialist's default hours for that calendar only (used for campaign calendars with limited availability).
Key concept: A specialist's weekly hours are their default availability. Individual calendars can override these hours for campaign/promotional purposes (e.g., "Free Wednesday Mornings 10-12").
See scheduling-config.md and ../scheduling/index.md for full details on the scheduling system.
Specialty Associations
Specialists can be associated with one or more specialties via the specialist_specialties junction table:
- Specialties define areas of medical practice (e.g., Cardiology, Dermatology, Orthopedics)
- A specialist can have multiple specialties
- A specialty can be associated with multiple specialists
- The junction table includes
organization_idfor direct RLS filtering (denormalized for performance)
This allows filtering specialists by specialty in the UI and helps patients find the right provider.
Organization Scoping
All specialists belong to an organization:
- The
specialiststable includesorganization_idfor direct RLS checks (no sub-queries needed) - Each specialist can only be viewed and managed within their organization's context
- Multi-tenancy is enforced at the database level via Row-Level Security policies
Soft Delete
Specialists use soft delete (deleted_at timestamp) rather than hard delete:
- Reason: Medical record integrity (HIPAA compliance)
- When a specialist is "deleted", their
deleted_atfield is set to the current timestamp - Historical appointments and clinical records remain intact and continue to reference the specialist
- Active specialists can be filtered with
WHERE deleted_at IS NULL
Key Fields
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
id | UUID | Internal primary key |
organization_id | UUID | Organization this specialist belongs to (required, indexed) |
user_id | UUID | Linked user account (nullable, unique) |
name | TEXT | Specialist's full name (required) |
title | TEXT | Professional title (e.g., "Cardiologist", "MD", "Licensed Therapist") |
description | TEXT | Biography or professional description (markdown/HTML) |
slug | TEXT | URL-friendly identifier (required, indexed) |
signature_url | TEXT | S3 key for digital signature image |
avatar_url | TEXT | S3 key for profile photo |
license_number | TEXT | Professional license/registration number |
license_issuing_body | TEXT | Professional body that issued the license (e.g., "OBBCSSR", "CMR") |
license_issued_at | DATE | When the license was issued |
license_expires_at | DATE | When the license expires — triggers expiration alerts |
license_document_url | TEXT | S3 key for uploaded license document (PDF/image) |
license_status | TEXT | pending, verified, expired — managed by clinic admin |
scheduling_timezone | VARCHAR(64) | IANA timezone for scheduling (e.g., "Europe/Bucharest") |
scheduling_active | BOOLEAN | Whether specialist accepts bookings (default true) |
minicrm_name | TEXT | External miniCRM identifier (integration field) |
deleted_at | TIMESTAMPTZ | Soft delete timestamp (nullable) |
created_at | TIMESTAMPTZ | Creation timestamp (auto-set) |
updated_at | TIMESTAMPTZ | Last update timestamp (auto-updated via trigger) |
External References
- Database schema: See architecture/data-model.md →
specialistsfor canonical table definitions, indexes, and RLS policies - API endpoints: See api.md for all specialist CRUD and query endpoints
- Scheduling configuration: See scheduling-config.md for weekly hours, overrides, and timezone handling
- Scheduling feature: See ../scheduling/ for full details on the availability engine and booking system