About.com Rating
Updated June 09, 2015.
Visit Their Website
The Medical Supplies Guide Site will be publishing a series of articles about companies that make products for people who are disabled. Use these articles as a resource to dig deeper into the credibility of a company and its products when you shop. You may even be in the midst of a job search and would like to consider a company with a mission to make medical supplies that help people with various disabilities.
Jenx was founded in 1982 by a pediatric physiotherapist and a product designer. Their mission was to change the lives of people with disabilities by designing and manufacturing products that would enhance their quality of life. By making the disabled more able, they believed they would change perceptions about what it meant to have a disability.
The Jenx Design Process
Jenx, headquartered in Sheffield, U.K., primarily designs and produces postural support products. In other words, products that help people sit up or stand up for those who have trouble doing so due to some form of disability.
By working with children with special needs, their caregivers, and therapists, Jenx product designers and researchers follow these steps to develop products intended to aid people with the tasks of daily living.
- Initial ideas are born out of their ongoing working relationships with families coping with disability, their caregivers, and therapists.
- Jenx staff research the idea and write a product briefing or summary.
- Jenx designers draw up the early product sketches to further develop the idea and get reactions from the stake-holders.
- When sketches are evaluated and found to be hopeful and in synch with the product briefing, they are selected for further development.
- Prototypes are made and tested.
- Designers take the feedback from these early tests and incorporate it into new prototypes, refining and developing until the product closely resembles the initial product briefing.
- Final testing, final revisions.
- Product is launched to the marketplace.
Job Functions at Jenx
Bringing one of these positioning products to market takes a team. Some of the job functions that Jenx has on its team include:
- Researchers
- Product designers and engineers
- Computer Aided Design (CAD) specialists
- Pediatric Therapists and Caregivers
- Quality Assurance specialists
- Manufacturing technicians
Jenx employees attend conferences, exhibitions, and courses to keep current in the field of pediatric developmental needs.
Product Examples
So what are pediatric positioning aids? These types of medical supplies help a child get into position so that they can accomplish various activities that people who are not disabled may take for granted.
For example, the Jenx Multi-Stander enables a caregiver or parent to set the child in either a prone, upright, or supine standing position. Jenx recommends an age range of 6 months to 6 years for the Multi-Stander. The product design allows a maximum height of 45-1/4", and a maximum weight of 66 lbs.
The Jenx Prone Stander supports children ages 3 years to 14 years. The Prone Stander, like the other products in the Jenx line, is colorful, attractive, and comfortable. The products use supportive pads, strong metal frames, and high-quality boards and trays to make standing positions comfortable and fun for children who can't stand on their own. The Prone Stander, like other Jenx products, is adjustable and reconfigurable so that the child can grow and still get years of use out of the device.
The Jenx Supine Stander looks similar to a hospital gurney or an emergency transport board, but it is softened both in material choice and in appearance. The Supine Stander is a powered unit that enables a caregiver or parent to transfer the child from their bed laterally onto the stander horizontally. The safety straps are fastened first, ensuring the child is snug, safe, and supported at four points from feet to upper chest, and then the hand-held electric activator is used to adjust the Stander angle to the upright position.
Visit Their Website