Background: Medicare’s annual wellness visit (AWV) is designed to engage older adult patients in health risk assessments and screenings to develop a personalized prevention plan. However, primary care practices disproportionately caring for the medically and socially complex and diverse low-income population were less likely to adopt the AWV into their practices (Ganguli et al., 2018; Resnick, 2019).

Description: An interprofessional student education (IPE) program of the Medicare’s AWV was developed and implemented in a federally funded health center in a diverse low-income community. The program included students from public health nursing, medicine, social work, pharmacy and physical therapy. The program goals were to conduct wellness visits in a primary care setting and to increase health professional students’ attitudes, knowledge and skills in interprofessional care of older adults. Challenges in the development and implementation phase have included engaging patients in scheduling visits, meetings and follow-up and engaging the team in curriculum development.

Lessons Learned: Partnering with communities and understanding social determinants of health (SDOH) are critical for health professional students particularly when working with underserved populations. There is a need to establish equity involvement through program modifications including the health risk assessment tools that incorporate SDOH.

Implications/Recommendations: SDOH integration into the IPE program for AWV will improve the knowledge of health professional students and providers in social and structural factors that may improve not only the percentage of diverse populations served by the AWV but community engagement as well.