West Virginia University computer scientists Syed Ashiqur Rahman and Donald Adjeroh proposed a new alternative to BMI: the Surface-based Body Shape Index (SBSI). Though decidedly more of a mouthful to say, the indicator is far more rigorous, based upon four key measurements: the body surface area (BSA), vertical trunk circumference (VTC), height (H), and waist circumference (WC).
Unfortunately, A Body Shape Index (ABSI), an alternative to BMI that garnered a lot of attention when it was proposed back in 2012, seems to have mostly fizzled out, earning only 83 mentions in PubMed, the international database for biomedical science, since its inception. Over the same period, BMI has been mentioned more than 34,000 times. The new indicator, SBSI, is probably doomed to the same fate. Thus far, it seems that simplicity trumps accuracy in health research, at least as far as BMI is concerned.

link to abstract