Lower Saxony company presents the world of physical mobility at the World Expo in Shanghai.
Demographic change is posing mounting challenges for societies around the world. Next to accidents and illness, old age associated with rising life expectancy is gaining importance as a cause of limited mobility. Expo 2010 in Shanghai (May 1 through October 31) is exploring the important global issue of human mobility and has entrusted the medical technology company Otto Bock HealthCare from Lower Saxony with the task of creating an exhibit.
For the first time in the 150-year-history of the World Expo, a pavilion in Shanghai will be dedicated to the concerns of handicapped people – the “Life & Sunshine Pavilion”. Otto Bock is responsible for the area of physical mobility. The company is basing its concept on the positive experiences collected in Berlin with the Otto Bock Science Center Medical Technology since it opened in June 2009.
Under the motto “Discover, what moves us”, this centre features multi-media and interactive installations to illustrate how medical technology solutions help restore quality of life in case of restrictions to natural human mobility.
Reducing inhibitions and prejudice by presenting information in a playful manner is an important objective. “The world expo in Shanghai is a great opportunity to raise awareness of quality of life for people with disabilities among a large audience. Technology for people and the innovativeness of our company and our products can be experienced emotionally,” says Professor Hans Georg Näder, the chairman, CEO and owner of the global market leader, about the project.
On more than 250 square metres of exhibition space available in Shanghai, the installation will range from the causes for disabilities to ways to restore mobility through technical devices. Exhibits that are unique the world over create an impressive medical technology experience for the public.
The perspective of living with disabilities is changing in China as well, in part as a result of the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. Otto Bock worked closely with the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF) during this event. As a government organisation, the CDPF is responsible for 80 million people with disabilities in the country. Modern medical technology is far better at meeting the personal desire for mobility into advanced age, maintaining the ability to work and assuring integration into the family and society than it was just ten years ago. A life with disabilities does not necessarily have to be a disabled life. Otto Bock wants to raise awareness of this fact during the expo. The lasting use of the exhibits has also been assured: After the end of the world expo in October, they will find a permanent place in the Shanghai Special Olympic Museum.
“Networks built on mutual trust are important in order to effectively improve the situation of people with disabilities and develop models for the future in cooperation with our international partners,” Professor Hans Georg Näder emphasises.
He holds lectures at the private Göttingen University of Applied Sciences and, since October 2009, at the Capital Medical University in Beijing which is offering a new medical technology course of studies.
In addition to its presence in the Life & Sunshine Pavilion, Otto Bock is also represented in the German pavilion. Here the Duderstadt company is exhibiting three products representing prosthetics, orthotics and wheelchair technology that is on the cutting edge in terms of functionality and design, underscoring the good reputation of medical technology “Made in Germany”: The fully microprocessor-controlled C Leg® leg prosthesis system, the Blizzard active wheelchair and the Lumbo TriStep, a new back orthosis with mobilisation function that can be adapted to the healing process step by step.
More information on the German pavilion:
http://www.expo2010-deutschland.de/erleben/deutscher-pavillon/
