Subscription to Dr. Cheney's Newsletter

[leela]

Calling all patients, prospective patients, and admirers of Dr, Cheney...
Many of have deep respect and hope for Dr. Cheney and his ongoing, ever-morphing research.
But his full newsletter comes at a price unattainable to many of us chronically unemployed sufferers,so I was interested in determining two things:
What kind of interest is here for a possible group subscription
The best approach for perchance obtaining one

Ideas: With Cheney's permission, to have a large group of us chip in small amounts to cover a subscription, and give the login to everyone who has contributed. Another thought was to do the same group contribution, but publish in the limited-access library here, or some other password-protected thread (if that's technically possible.) Any other thoughts?

I hesitate to contact his office before I have a sense of how much interest there is here. Also, I have no connection there, and wonder if it would be better to have one of his patients eventually approach him with this idea, once we know approximately how many people are interested.

Surely he is aware of how many of us have severely limited resources, and surely the bulk of his paying patients could subsidize this spread-out subscritption?

Please post if you are interested, and/or further ideas. Especially interested in hearing from Cheney patients, who might know more on this subject.

Thanks!:sofa:

 

[ukxmrv]

I'm interested Leela, would gladly chip in part of the monthly cost.

Thank you

 

[slayadragon]

I'm interested.

Best, Lisa

 

[Sushi]

I'm interested and so is my friend Sergio.

Sushi

 

[Dorothy]

I'm interested too, this is a great idea! I hope Dr. Cheney OKs it - I don't understand why he feels the need to charge so much for an online newsletter; I'd like to think he's using the profits for CFS research.

 

[gregf]

I would be interested in this and would contribute financially.

I think the reason for the hefty charge is to harvest some money from the subscribers
who can easily afford it, other doctors, professionals, corporations, etc for who it is just
a business expense. I think the important key points get thru to us anyhow and it is
not to exploit us the patients.

I would contribute mostly as a way of donating as I see the WPI and Paul Cheney
as our best hopes. I think he understands the pathophysiology of ME better than any other person.

I would also like to be aware of the other forum members who follow Cheney.
I feel an affinity with others who recognise a clever mind. I don't know if there
is a way to do that ?

 

[Sing]

I am interested and would chip in too. I also feel that Cheney is one of our best minds and always want to know about his analyses and recommendations.

 

[Jenny]

I would be interested too.

Jenny

 

[jenbooks]

I don't think he'll do it, but I'll contribute.

 

[Lynn]

I would do it also. Maybe he would consider it from a point of view like the "compassionate care" policies of drug companies.

I am in no position to provide legal advice but I am not sure that we have to get his permission. If some of us chipped in to buy the newsletter, wouldn't we each own part of it and therefore have the right to read it? Of course, we couldn't post it online or anything. Anyone out there no the legal ramifications of that?

Lynn

 

[August59]

I suspect the "Terms of the Agreement" (or whatever it is called) most likely addresses the purchase of a subscription is intended for an individual. If someone has a subscription to another online reference, you may be able to look at the "TotA" for it to see if there is something indicating an individual. It's probably an industry standard type thing, but then again he may not even have a "TotA"?

How much is a subscription?

 

[Dorothy]

How much is a subscription?

I checked Dr. Cheney's research website at

http://www.cheneyresearch.com/sign-up


and the price of an annual subscription is $499.50. You can also choose to get a one-year monthly subscription, which is $49.95 a month, and a 3-month subscription is $79.95 a month. Those are pretty steep prices!


The site lists the topics covered for subscribers and has a small "public" section that anyone can read. I didn't find a Terms of Agreement, although of course everything there is copyrighted. Although I do admire Dr. Cheney's brilliant mind, I could never justify or afford spending $500 a year on my own for this information, especially when doctors like Dr. Bell offer their insights free of charge - even Dr. Bell's first book, Faces of CFS, is offered as a free download. I hope the "group subscription" can work out legally.

 

[Sing]

Well, a group medical practice would only have one subscription, and they would deduct it as a business expense. That would be an example of a group subscription.

General comment on his high fees:

I see Cheney as a researcher primarily, whose patients are covering the costs of him being such. Normally there would be big grants, govt and institutional support for pioneering work like his. Comparing what he does to another brilliant doctor/researcher, Dr. Byron Hyde in Canada, Dr. Hyde eeks out a living and is very limited in what he can do on the small fees he gets through the Canadian health care system. He charges a lot for patients from other countries but I doubt he gets many of those. So, anyway, patients have been picking up the slack of institutional support for doctors/researchers who are trying to make some headway for us.

 

[bobdds]

I have respect for Dr. Cheney. He is a bright guy and has been one of the rare phsicians trying to take a scientific rather than just a psych approach. I was a former patient of his and did not continue because I thought his fees were ridiculous. He would give you a lecture of moleculer biology (essentially reading Dr. Bell's articles) and have a stopwatch running billing you to the nearest minute (literally). It made you not even want to ask a question because it would cost you 5-100 dollars to do so. I realize you pay for a doctors time, but I felt that the appointment was set up to take an extended amount of time to simply cost more. I think these practices take advantage of desparate patients. Nothing against him personally and I appreciate his efforts on our behalf greatly, but these practices are not professional, just profitable.