A hospital in Israel has begun using Apple's iPad to enable medical staff to help treat patients, provide consultations and study X-rays and CT scans from afar.

The Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center, located in the largely ultra-orthodox Tel Aviv suburb Bnei Brak, said on Tuesday it is the first hospital to program the high-resolution, touch-screen iPad to interact with Microsoft Corp's Chameleon software used by hopsitals.

The hospital's computer department programed the iPad with the help of an external technology company.

We now have the same program and the same database for treatment in the hospital on the iPad, Dr Yoram Liwer, chief executive of Mayanei Hayeshua, told Reuters. The patients' data are in the computer ... so physicians who are out of hospital but on call can see X-rays and ultrasounds through their iPad and give more intelligent advice to staff in the hospital.

For example, a patient recently arrived in the emergency room with a broken hip and ultimately needed a full hip replacement.

The doctor on duty consulted with a senior orthopeadic surgeon who was not in the hospital and who offered advice on the treatment after studying the X-rays and CT scans. The senior doctor was also able to follow up immediately after the surgery to see the results.

The high resolution of the screens enables good viewing of the X-rays and also the iPad is fun to work with, Liwer said. People like to carry it with them wherever they go. They don't take a laptop but the iPad is with them all the time so we get better and more intelligent consulting.

(Reporting by Tova Cohen; editing by Paul Casciato)

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