Innovative geriatric care programs have developed worldwide in the past two decades to better address the special problems and care needs of the growing elderly population. Many of these have been based in the home setting and involved basic concepts of prevention and comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). Some have focused on periodic screening of relatively healthy and independent elderly persons in their homes and provision of prevention-oriented services, others have targeted more frail and disabled individuals (eg. post-hospitalisation), still others involve entire population groups of elderly persons and provide both prevention and treatment. A common thread has been the use of CGA to evaluate patient problems, understand needs for care, help arrange for services and plan follow-up. Benefits have included more complete diagnosis, discovery of important treatable problems, improvement in drug regimens, reductions in use of hospitals and nursing homes, improved function and satisfaction and reduced mortality. Meta-analysis has confirmed some of the most important of these benefits: improved functional status, reduced mortality and reduced use of institutional services. In this symposium, reports on in-home prevention and geriatric assessment programs were presented from six countries: Australia, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, the UK and the US.