Korean Skeptics Put Traditional Korean Medicine to the Test

An event will be held to verify the validity of ‘pulse diagnosis’ or diagnosing patient’s latent disease by taking pulse from radius of the patient.

The Institute for Science-Based Medicine (ISBM), a private research and skeptics group, announced that it will be testing to see if those licensed to the Traditional Korean Medicine can actually make a successful diagnosis through 'pulse'.

ISBM announced 언제?, "Although medical science has developed remarkably, the principles and concepts such as 'Qi (energy flow), Yin and Yang, and Sasang Constitution' have not been proved scientifically. However, there are still many people trusting the 'pulse diagnosis' and spending a fortune on Traditional Korean Medicine. Moreover, the Korean Government has been spending huge budgets for the researching pulse testers."

"We believe Pulse has no diagnostic value and is just a façade for patients," ISBM said. "The evidence of pulse diagnosis in Traditional Korean Medicine is as weak and its mechanism is implausible. There are scarce clinical and scientific basis supporting the diagnostic value of pulse diagnosis" ISBM added.

The ISBM announced, "If there is a Traditional Korean Medicine practitioner who can determine the disease or predetermined condition (pregnancy, sex of fetus, etc.) that the normal doctors judge to be impossible without the aid of a medical tests or diagnosis, the ISBM will pay that Traditional Korean Medicine doctor KRW 50,000,000, equivalent to USD 45,000 as a reward." ISBM explained, "the qualification for the application is restricted to those who have license to practice in Traditional Korean Medicine.'

ISBM is a private research center in Korea, consisted of physicians and medical scientists. Its main goal is to scrutinize unscientific therapies by rigorously reviewing the clinical trials and systematic reviews.

- ISBM Korea