BDORT


The Bi-Digital O-Ring Test, characterized as a form of applied kinesiology, is a patented alternative medicine diagnostic procedure in which a patient forms an 'O' with his or her fingers, and the diagnostician subjectively evaluates the patient's health according to the patient's finger strength as the diagnostician tries to pry them apart.
BDORT has been cited and characterized at length by the American Institute for Technology and Science Education as a specific and noteworthy example of pseudoscientific quackery.
BDORT was invented by Yoshiaki Omura, along with several other related alternative medicine techniques. They are featured in Omura's self-published Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics Research, The International Journal, of which Omura is founder and editor-in-chief, as well as in seminars presented by Omura and his colleagues.
Omura is registered to practice acupuncture in New York State.
In the only known full, formal independent evaluation of BDORT or of any other BDORT-related treatment and technique by a mainstream scientific or medical body, the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand ruled, in two separate cases brought before it in 2003, that Richard Warwick Gorringe, MB, ChB of Hamilton, New Zealand, who used BDORT to the exclusion of conventional diagnoses on his patients, was guilty of malpractice. In the first case, the Tribunal found it "is not a plausible, reliable, or scientific technique for making medical decisions" and "there is no plausible evidence that PMRT has any scientific validity".
In the second case the Tribunal ruled Gorringe again relied on BDORT to the exclusion of traditional diagnoses, which ultimately led to the death of a patient. As a result of these findings and conclusions, Gorringe was fined and stripped of his license to practice medicine.

Yoshiaki Omura

Yoshiaki Omura is president and founder of the International College of Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics, president and founder of the International Bi-Digital O-Ring Test Medical Association, and medical research director of the Heart Disease Research Foundation.

Description

The test is a subjective evaluation of a patient's opposing muscle strength in which a diagnostician employs the thumb and forefinger of each hand, formed in the shape of an O, to attempt to force apart an O shape formed by the patient who places the fingertips of their thumb and one of their remaining fingers together. At the same time, the patient holds a slide of organ tissue, a sample of medication, potential allergen, etc., in their free hand, or is otherwise 'probed' at an appropriate acupuncture point by the use of a metal rod or laser pointer. The diagnostician then uses their perception of the strength required to force apart the patient's 'O-Ring' of thumb and one of the remaining fingers to assess the patient's health.

Patent

The United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected the initial BDORT patent application as 'too unbelievable to be true'. The application was then resubmitted in 1987, and the USPTO again rejected it. After receiving expert testimony from Omura's "associates in clinical fields and basic sciences, both in Japan and the United States" regarding BDORT, the USPTO issued in 1993.
The fact that a patent was granted to the BDORT has been cited as an example of 'high weirdness' by one firm of patent attorneys.

Suggested uses and variants

The BDORT is capable, according to its proponents, of a wide range of applications in the diagnosis, prescription of treatment, and evaluation of efficacy of treatment of, amongst others: heart conditions, cancers, 'pre-cancers', allergic reactions, viral and bacterial infections, a range of organic and/or environmental stresses, as well as the precise location of acupuncture points and meridians previously unknown or inappropriately identified.
Other than the New Zealand Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal's reports, there is no known independent mainstream scientific or medical evaluation or validation of any of the BDORT or BDORT-related claims, including the following BDORT variants:
;The Indirect Method
;Remote Application
;Selective Drug Uptake Enhancement Method
;Solar energy stored papers
;Psychic healing

Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand review of BDORT

The New Zealand Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, ruled on two separate malpractice cases against Richard Warwick Gorringe, MB, ChB, of Hamilton, New Zealand.
In the first, held in Wellington in 2003, where BDORT was also referred to as 'PMRT' by Gorringe, the tribunal examined and dismissed any claims of scientific validity of BDORT, offering the following summary statement of findings:
As a result of these findings and conclusions, Gorringe was fined and stripped of his license to practice medicine.
In separate hearings the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal held in December 2003 and ruled upon in May 2004 in Auckland, found Gorringe guilty of malpractice in the death of an earlier patient, and concluded that Gorringe's reliance on BDORT to the exclusion of conventional diagnoses led to the patient's death.

BDORT testimony used by Wellington tribunal in its decision

Several expert witnesses provided testimony about BDORT at the MPDT Wellington hearings, with which the tribunal concurred:

Equivalence with PMRT

In the first New Zealand MPDT report from Wellington in 2003, the tribunal defines the terms PMRT and BDORT as equivalent:
Later in the same report, the tribunal again equates PMRT and BDORT, but states that the technique used by Gorringe is different from Dr. Omura's:
The tribunal uses the terms BDORT and PMRT interchangeably throughout the Wellington report from 2003.
In the second MPDT report from Auckland in 2004, the tribunal does not mention PMRT at all, and refers to Gorringe's technique exclusively as 'BDORT'.
The Quackwatch article reviewing these two New Zealand MPDT reports also equates PMRT and BDORT, stating:

BDORT-related courses

BDORT-related seminars, given by Omura, are conducted monthly in New York. The University of the State of New York Education Department allows these seminars to count towards course credit for physicians and dentists seeking certification for the application of acupuncture in the course of their practice.
In a Decision of 15 May 2007 the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, in Victoria, Australia, in an appeal against a decision by the Chinese Medical Registration Board of Victoria refusing registration to practice as an acupuncturist, found that attendance and participation in Yoshiaki Omura's Annual International Symposium on Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics as accredited by the University of the State of New York Education Department, in addition to "clinical experience... with these subjects in respect of real patients" did not meet the Chinese Medicine Board's requirement of "competencies substantially equivalent to" those taught in a Board certified acupuncture class. Given this, the Tribunal ruled that the Board was not required to certify the applicant as a practitioner of Chinese medicine.