BDORT

Yoshiaki Omura, MD, ScD, (born March 28, 1934, in Asahi, Toyama Prefecture, Japan), is Director of Medical Research of the Heart Disease Research Foundation, President and Founder of the International College of Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics, and President and Founder of the International Bi-Digital O-Ring Test Medical Association.

Omura is the creator of the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test (BDORT), an alternative medicine diagnostic technique, and a series of other alternative medicine techniques which are presented in 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.

The Bi-Digital O-Ring Test was considered by the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand in the course of its judgment of the case of Richard Gorringe. In the Tribunal's final report on that case, which is the only known recorded opinion of the BDORT by a mainstream medical body, the Tribunal found that '...there is no plausible evidence that PMRT [BDORT] has any scientific validity.'

Bi-Digital O-Ring Test

The Bi-Digital O-Ring Test is a diagnostic test developed by Omura, for which he holds a patent. Proponents of the test say the test is effective in the analysis and assessment of numerous biological and environmental factors, and in the diagnosis and treatment of a number of conditions. The test is not known to have been presented or subject to independent review other than that of the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand.

Description

The basic form of the test consists of the diagnostician employing thumb and forefinger of each hand, formed in the shape of an O, to attempt to force apart an O shape formed by thumb and forefinger of the person being evaluated, while that person holds a piece of organ tissue, or a sample of medication, in their free hand. The diagnostician then uses his or her perception of the strength required to do so to assess the matter being evaluated.

Applications

The BDORT is capable, according to Omura and his colleagues, of a number of applications, especially the diagnosis and prescription of treatment for a very wide range of afflictions, including heart conditions, cancer, allergies, viral and bacterial infections, and poisoning. However, these claims have not been verified by any conventional independent peer-reviewed assessment.

Derivative and Variant Applications

There are a number of variant methodologies of the application of the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test presented by Omura.

• The Indirect Method

In the Indirect Method of application an intermediary is employed, and the patient is not directly examined at all. The intermediary directs a laser held in his or her right hand at the appropriate acupuncture point atop the patient's head while at the same time the diagnostician performs the test on the left hand of the intermediary. No scientifically viable explanation has been given as to why this method would work, even if the normal BDORT worked as claimed.

• Remote Application

Omura claims that it is possible, if the procedure is performed by a very experienced practitioner such as himself, to perform the BDORT on a patient over the telephone without having any physical contact with the patient. In this procedure the patient is, for example, instructed to hold in one hand a substance being evaluated, while holding the telephone receiver at the bodily location prescribed by the diagnostician. The practitioner then evaluates the muscle strength necessary to separate the interlocked O–rings of thumb and forefinger of each of his or her own two hands, and uses this data in place of data from standard BDORT on the patient. However, no scientifically viable explanation has been given for how the practitioner's hands would be altered by the telephone.

Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand Consideration

The Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand, in its consideration of the case of Richard Gorringe, examined and dismissed any claims of scientific validity of the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test, offering the following summary statement of findings:

"We therefore accept that PMRT is not a plausible, reliable, or scientific technique for making medical decisions. We find there is no plausible evidence that PMRT has any scientific validity. It therefore follows that reliance on PMRT to make diagnoses to the exclusion of conventional and/or generally recognized diagnostic/investigatory techniques is unacceptable and irresponsible." (Tribunal Findings, para 363)

Support for the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test

Dr. Omura's BDORT is a patented technique. The patent was issued after 7 years of evaluation of the technique. For more than 3 years, Dr. Omura provided experimental data as requested by the U.S. patent office. At this point, the patent office came to the conclusion that Dr. Omura was indeed capable of performing the technique as claimed in his patent application, but that there was no proof that other practitioners would be able to reproduce the results. A request was made to have independent evaluations of the technique done by professors at established medical, dental, and engineering schools (as these were the 3 fields directly addressed by the claims of the technique). The testimony delivered by these professors over an additional 3 years satisfied the patent office's scientific requirements and the patent was issued.

Seperately, the technique has been reviewed by the highly respected neuroscientist Prof. Chifuyu Takeshige, then a professor and chairman of the physiology department of Show University Medical School in Tokyo. Prof. Takeshige was skeptical of the BDORT claims as the U.S. patent office initially was. As chairman of the department of physiology, he used all the resources at his disposal to test the scientific validity of the BDORT. Therefore, he annually invited Dr. Omura to the university to scrutinize the technique through lecture and experimentation. As a next step, Prof. Takeshige decided to attempt to reproduce the same phenomena in animals, specifically rabbits. As a rabbit cannot make the O-Ring required by the technique, the professor decided to electrically stimulate the cerebral cortex corresponding to the rabbit's paw and the human thumb and index finger. By stimulating the opposite site of the cerebral cortex, Prof. Takeshige produced muscular contraction measurable by electromyography (EMG). Prof. Takeshige's goal was to reproduce the same phenomena as in humans being measured by the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test. His research and experiments into the subject matter were carried out independently of Dr. Omura's work.

In addition, Prof. Takeshige wanted to confirm some of Dr. Omura's other research, including the localization of acupuncture points in living humans and cadavers accurately using the Bi-Digital O-Ring Test Resonance Phenomena between acupuncture point St. 36 and stomach tissue presented on a microscope slide. The professor confirmed in a blind study that Dr. Omura was able to localize distribution of dopamine and serotonin in a slice of animal brain tissue. Dr. Omura, using his technique, was able to perform the localization in a manner comparable to the standard histochemical mapping of the distribution. Dr. Omura was able to match the standard technique well enough that Prof. Takeshige offered him a position of visiting professor of physiology. Since finding acceptable scientific evidence to support the BDORT he has actively encouraged other professors to do research, and some of his own research has been published in Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics Research: The International Journal. He was an active participant in international symposiums organized by the Japan BDORT Medical Society.

Selective Drug Uptake Enhancement Method

The Selective Drug Uptake Enhancement Method is a method devised by Omura "for assuring that drugs will be targeted selectively to specifically targeted biological factors, whether particular cells, tissue structures, or organs, while minimizing uptake by non-targeted biological factors of the organism. The Selective Drug Uptake Method employs appropriate stimulation of appropriate acupuncture points as determined and evaluated by the BDORT to achieve its effect.

These findings are not known to have been presented to or subject to evaluation by conventional independent peer-reviewed assessment.

Solar Energy Stored Papers

From his research via BDORT assessment and evaluation, Omura believes that it is possible to capture a special healing power of sunlight, for which his term is Special Solar Energy, on index cards or other ordinary paper, and for which method he has applied for patent. This energy must, for maximum efficacy, be ‘captured’ at the ideal times of sunrise and sunset, and carefully preserved on what he then terms as Special Solar Energy Stored Papers, maintaining appropriate Qi Gong polarity at all times and shielding the papers from electromagnetic fields by carefully wrapping them in aluminum foil. Thus captured and preserved, he claims that Special Solar Energy is effective in the treatment of a number of conditions, including arthritis, cancers, hypertension, and Alzheimer’s Disease.

These findings are not known to have been presented to or subject to evaluation by conventional independent peer-reviewed assessment.

Heart Disease Research Foundation

The Heart Disease Research Foundation, of which Omura has been Director of Medical Research since 1971, in 1972 sued General Motors on behalf of all citizens of the United States affected by pollution from General Motors, seeking substantial actual and punitive monetary damages to be awarded to its research activities. The case was dismissed as devoid of merit, establishing precedent that such ‘a bare-bones statement of conspiracy . . . without supporting facts permits dismissal’ and was meritless in both its particulars and its essential character, and US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were subsequently amended to make such a suit impossible in future. (Heart Disease Research Foundation v General Motors Corp, 15 Fed.R.Serv. 2d 1517, 1519 (SDNY, 1972))

Activities

Yoshiaki Omura, as head of the International College of Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics, conducts monthly seminars/workshops in New York, listed by the University of the State of New York Education Department and the American Medical Association for Continuing Medical Education credit for physicians and dentists to use toward an Acupuncture Certificate. The International College of Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics claims to organize an Annual International Symposium every October at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, but no independent verification of this can be found.^{[independent citation needed]}

External links

• International College of Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics, Official Site.
• International Bi-Digital O-Ring Test Association, Official Site
• International Bi-Digital O-Ring Test Association Official Biography of Dr Omura
• Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand Official Site
• New Zealand Health Practioners Disciplinary Tribunal Offical Site
• Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal of New Zealand findings in re Richard Gorringe and the PMRT/Bi-Digital O-Ring Test

See also

• Alternative Medicine
• Pseudoscience
• Quackery