Dr. Fries is the President of InterRAI, a 33-nation consortium of researchers using personal-level assessment to improve the care of the elderly and other vulnerable populations in institutional and non-institutional settings. With InterRAI colleagues, Fries has developed assessment systems for nursing homes, home care, palliative care, post-acute care, acute care, assisted living, inpatient and community mental health, intellectual/developmental disabilities, correctional facilities, and children’s mental health. These instruments have already been translated into over a dozen languages and have been adopted as the national instrument for Iceland and New Zealand, multiple Canadian provinces, Hong Kong, Estonia, etc. In the US, 20 states have adopted InterRAI instruments. InterRAI assessments, along with their applications, move towards developing a common language for health and long-term care.