My wife is an MD/PhD, and I'm almost a PhD (molecular biology/bioinformatics), so I completely get what you're talking about. It is almost a night and day diff

My wife is an MD/PhD, and I'm almost a PhD (molecular biology/bioinformatics), so I completely get what you're talking about. It is almost a night and day difference when talking to doctors. When they find out what you know, you can then have a much higher level conversation about things. For example, with our kids' pediatrician, there is no need to pitch vaccines. The only question is what shot are they getting today? It's even funnier with our dog's vet. He started bringing out journal articles to explain stuff once. So, yeah, it can be a bit of a give and take to figure out what level the conversation can take place at, but once you're there, you can be far more productive. I find that's it's easier to just say, "I'm a scientist/programmer/whatever, so I get it...". Unfortunately, this type of problem arises anytime you have a highly skilled person trying to explain something to a novice, doctors don't have a monopoly on this. The other thing to remember is that sometimes they are just following policy and covering themselves legally by explaining something stupid.