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Linet uses a special “suit” for simulating old age

“We use it all the time not only when training health workers and business partners, but it also works as an aid to people working in development and as product managers. The possibility of effective demonstration accelerates the process of the development of new beds,” stated Jitka Kocálová, Linet’s project manager.
This unique instruction set was acquired for the Linet Scolaris education centre. Thanks to the special suit nurses and carers gain a realistic view of the world of older and partly immobile patients. This type of instruction becomes far more interesting and acquires an element of modern education of the future. To a great extent the suit is also displayed in the production technology of beds. Thanks to this, it makes it far more possible to adapt bed construction more practically and better estimate the needs of the patient. This modern, so-called old-age suit is also used by some car plants to perfect their car accessories, as they can accurately simulate all the ailments of older drivers.
“It may sound a bit far-fetched that in several minutes you age by several decades. Legs get heavier and the back gets bent, you loose sense in your hand, your eyes lose focus, you cannot hear properly, each step is made with great effort,” is how Linet Scholaris instructor Kateřina Šrubařová describes the suit and the way it simulates the feeling of old age. Yet the special suit simulating old age does not use any super-intelligent technology and fits into one sports bag. The core of the simulator is the so-called elbow and knew joint restrictors which restrict normal movement of these and adjacent parts of the human body. Another part is the back “protector” stiffened by an aluminium construction causing the position of the back to bend. Special gloves simulate reduced sense of touch and the weights on the wrists and ankles simulate the reduced performance of the muscles. Useful accessories are spectacles bringing on the loss of the ability of peripheral vision and changes caused by eye cataracts. Bad hearing and reduced ability to hear high-frequency sounds, more frequent among people of older age, is possible to induce with ear plugs.
Linet is a leader on the Czech market and is one of five of the biggest hospital bed manufacturers in the world. In the 2005/06 business year it exported 80 % of its production to 75 countries. Annually tens of thousand of beds are produced at Linet in Želevčice u Slaného, as well as a broad range of mattresses, bedside cabinets and medical furniture.



(14.5.2008)