Faculty Profile

Brant Fries

Brant E. Fries, PhD, LLD (hc)

  • Professor Emeritus, Health Management and Policy
  • Research Professor Emeritus, Institute of Gerontology

Dr. Fries' research has three principal components. First, he developed Resource Utilization Groups to measure nursing home case mix -- the intensity or quantity of care provided to individuals. He was national task leader for developing RUG-IV, used for Medicare payments to US nursing homes and Medicaid payments in half of the states. He also helped designed the Medicaid payment systems for New York and Pennsylvania.

Second, Fries co-designed the Minimum Data Set for Nursing Home Residents (MDS), congressionally mandated for all US nursing homes. It improves quality through care planning, measures quality, develops quality norms, and evaluates interventions, regulations, and payment incentives. Fries worked with multiple states, including Michigan, Arkansas, Missouri, Maryland, Illinois, and New Jersey, to rationalize eligibility for long-term care and set policy.

Third, Fries is the President of interRAI, a 37-nation research consortium using personal-level assessment to improve care of elderly and other vulnerable. He has developed assessment systems for nursing homes, home care, palliative care, post-acute care, acute care, inpatient and community mental health, intellectual/developmental disabilities, correctional facilities, caregivers, and children's mental health.

These have been translated into over a dozen languages and adopted as national instruments for Iceland and New Zealand, Finland, Switzerland, Canada, Hong Kong, Estonia, etc. In the US, 26 states have adopted interRAI instruments. interRAI assessments, along with their applications, move towards developing a common language for health and long-term care.

  • PhD, Cornell University, 1972
  • MS, Cornell University, 1971
  • BA, Columbia University, 1967

Long-term care policy and regulation, including nursing homes, home care, well-elderly in the community, palliative care, caregivers, and psychiatric care.

Research Projects:
Development of a self-assessment for family and other carers of vulnerable individuals, with support of the Irish government. Currently running an 11-country project to develop risk and outcome measures for this assessment instrument.

Participating in the development of assessment systems for home and community-based care, well populations, correctional facilities, community and hospital mental health, children and youth, acute care.

President of interRAI, an international research consortium with over a hundred members from 37 nations, to develop assessment systems for vulnerable populations. InterRAI systems have been adopted as national instruments in multiple nations around the world.

Fries BE, James ML, Martin L, Head MJ, Park PS. (June 2019) A Case-Mix System for Adults with Developmental Disabilities. Health Serv Insights, 12:1-8. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1178632919856011

Morris, J. N., Declercq, A., Hirdes, J. P., Finne-Soveri, H., Fries, B. E., James, M. L., ... and Topinkova, E. (2018). Hearing the voice of the resident in long-term care facilities-An internationally based approach to assessing quality of life. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 19(3), 207-215. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525861017304644?via%3Dihub

Hirdes, J. P., Van Everdingen, C., Ferris, J., Franco-Martin, M., Fries, B. E., Heikkila, J., ... and Van Audenhove, C. (2020). The interRAI suite of mental health assessment instruments: an integrated system for the continuum of care. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 926. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00926/full

Stewart, S. L., Celebre, A., Head, M. J., James, M. L., Martin, L., and Fries, B. E. (2020). A case-mix system for children and youth with developmental disabilities. Health Services Insights, 13. doi:10.1177/1178632920977899

Stewart, S. L., Celebre, A., Head, M. J., James, M. L., Martin, L., and Fries, B. E. (2020). A case-mix system for children and youth with developmental disabilities. Health Services Insights, 13, 1178632920977899.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1178632919856011

Areas of Expertise: Aging,  Child Health,  COVID-19,  Global Public Health,  Health Care,  Health Policy,  Mental Health