News

Olympic stars such as world track and field athlete Sally Pearson and Paralympic hopefuls like Kelly Cartwright are preparing for London with a series of joint competitions during this Australian summer.
Both of them drew attention to themselves during the Qantas Australian Athletics Tour on 28 January in Adelaide. Pearson with two predominant wins in the 100 and 200 metres, Cartwright with a new world record for female transfemoral amputees in the 200 metres with a time of 35.98 seconds.

Having successfully passed their journeyman's examinations as prosthetists, all seven graduates are also guaranteed jobs.
They received advance confirmation from the companies that trained them, provided they passed in theory and practice. Everything went like clockwork with an average mark of 2.0. "A strong group" exulted Karl Becker, member of the examination commission and Education Manager at Ottobock, when he received the results.

Concise information on traumatology and modern rehabilitation concepts in Germany
The healthcare trade fair "Arab Health 2012" in Dubai will be preceded by the "2nd German-Arabic Symposium on Trauma Care". This event on 22 and 23 January 2012 brings together doctors, therapists, orthopaedic technicians and manufacturers in order to jointly discuss extended concepts for the care of trauma patients and their reintegration.

Svetlana's smile knows no bounds. She never seems to stop riding her new handbike.
She doesn't care that her jersey is much too thin and that the November winds are much too cold. Her joy outshines all adverse circumstances: Svetlana Moshkovich is sitting for the first time in the bike she hopes to ride to victory in the 2012 Paralympics.

Ottobock supports the initiative DU2012
Together with 30 other companies and media partners, Ottobock is supporting the initiative "Deutschland Unternehmerland 2012" (DU2012) for jobs and company founders. The aim of the Stiftung der deutschen Wirtschaft für Arbeit und Beschäftigung (SWAB – German business initiative for work and employment) is to allow founders, young businesses and innovation projects to network through the initiative and support them for the long-term with capital and specialists.

Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber, Gerd Schönfelder and the women's basketball team win the Ottobock trophies
On Saturday, November 26, 2011, the disabled athletes of the year were honoured at the German Sport and Olympics museum in Cologne. The award, presented by Otto Bock HealthCare, went to Anna Katharina Schaffelhuber and Gerd Schönfelder (both in alpine ski), and to the German national team in women's wheelchair basketball.

Development Partnership to boost education in Latin America
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Ottobock have joined forces to promote orthopedics technology education in Latin America. The Development Patnership is co-funded by the Programme develoPPP.de that is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

"BestPersAward 2010/2011" for Otto Bock HealthCare
Otto Bock HealthCare has received the "BestPersAward 2010/2011" in recognition of its innovative, trendsetting human capital management activities. This employer competition is held every two years by the Institute for Management Competence at Saarbrücken University, recognising the best personnel concepts of SMEs.

Pedro Nel Ospina Vasquez Medal awarded for social responsibility
The "Colombian Society of Journalism and Media" has honoured Mario Buendia, Managing Director of Otto Bock Andina, and his team with the Pedro Nel Ospina Vasquez Medal for outstanding social responsibility. Mario Buendia accepted the award at the Columbian National Congress.

The Leonardo opened with a ribbon-cutting gala
The Leonardo – new, interactive museum that blends science, technology, and art – opened with a ribbon-cutting gala event October 6th, 2011.

Awards for high-performance fibre composite material by Otto Bock
The high-performance carbon fibre woven prepreg composite material developed by Otto Bock has received the MATERIALICA Design + Technology Award 2011 in gold. It was recently presented in Munich in the course of the MATERIALICA trade fair. The material is also being recognised with the iF material design award 2012.

GoldenEye-BtoB Photo Award for "diephotodesigner.de"
Dirk Dähmlow and Ken Schuchtmann have been honoured with the "GoldenEye-BtoB Photo Award" in the "Product" category for their unusual photo of the C-Leg® leg prosthesis system with the Triton prosthetic foot.

Helpers fight for refugees and locals weakened by hunger
The Garissa region, five hours from Kenya's capital of Nairobi, is among those hardest hit by catastrophic droughts across the horn of Africa. This is where the second medical team, which was sent to the crisis region by the aid organisation LandsAid e.V., has been deployed since 16 September 2011. The Otto Bock Foundation supported this project, which will take several more months, with a donation of EUR 5,000.

The ClickValve, a threadless valve closure system for transfemoral fittings, provides the alternative to flat rubber valves and screw valves.
The threadless design of the ClickValve greatly simplifies daily handling for the user. Thanks to a special opening mechanism, the valve is easy to open and close and can be readily inserted into the lower valve component due to its conical shape.

Otto Bock to unveil its London 2012 International Leadership Team at International Paralympic Day, London, 8th September 2011.
Otto Bock HealthCare, the Official Prosthetic, Orthotic and Wheelchair Technical Service Provider of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, is set to unveil the principal members of its International Leadership Team on International Paralympic Day (IPD) to be held at Trafalgar Square, London, on Thursday 8th September 2011.

Moving moments in the town hall and in front of the children's sanctuaries
There was a solemn, friendly, and emotional ceremony in the historic town hall on Saturday, September 3, 2011, honouring Professor Hans Georg Näder as a new honorary citizen of Duderstadt.

A dedicated family entrepreneur – the success story of a midsize enterprise
At the age of 28, Professor Hans Georg Näder took over as head of the Otto Bock Group from his father Dr. Max Näder. The father of two daughters Julia (20) and Georgia (14), he is now responsible for over 5,000 employees in 44 countries generating sales of approximately EUR 700 million in 2011.

5th place in the "Hidden Champions" ranking
In its August 22, 2011 edition, WirtschaftsWoche (WiWo), a German business news magazine, published a ranking it commissioned on the brand value of German "Hidden Champions" - with Otto Bock in 5th place, an outstanding achievement.