12:29 Nov 17, 2009 

Changing a question's difficulty level
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', indicate that by checking the appropriate box while suggesting an answer.

How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:

An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.

A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).

Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.

When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.

13:36 Nov 13, 2009 

IMO 'eerstelijns zorg' is an altogether different concept than 'eerstelijns geneesmiddelen'. Nonetheless, 'primary drugs' and 'first-line drugs' seem to be interchangeable, although 'first-line drugs' is by far the most common terminology (cf. Google).

09:14 Nov 13, 2009 

I think they are interchangeable but for some reason I have a definite preference for first-line in this context. The reason could be that TB is a (dread) disease which brings to mind a protracted battle to get better (fight it off as it were).

08:58 Nov 13, 2009 

Out of interest, are 'first line' and 'primary' interchangeable in the care sector? I always use 'primary care' for 'eerstelijns zorg'. Maybe its a question of diction: 'primary care' sounds better than 'first line care', 'first line medication' sounds better than 'primary medication'?

00:25 Nov 13, 2009 

Okay okay first-line it is. I'm very grateful to you all. Seems like I have at least two days off now. Will come back after that though ;-)

23:56 Nov 12, 2009 

Try Googling for 'first-line drugs' instead of 'first-line medication' :-) These drugs are administered as a first regimen and are replaced by 'second-line' or even 'third-line' drugs when they become less effective (after regular/long-term use).

18:25 Nov 12, 2009 

My reference is to an authentic (not a translated) US site and I for one would certainly rely on it. First line of defence, for instance, is also a good English expression.

18:18 Nov 12, 2009 

Thing is, 3000 hits is not that much for a global healt care issue is it? I called a friend who has a degree in this stuff (although not native English), she didn't know about anything called first-line medication.... That's why I'm a bit uncertain.