Jon Schommer, PhD, has extensive experience in information processing and decision making related to the provision, use, and evaluation of drug products and pharmacist services. The work is grounded in health behavior theories; decision-making theories; cognitive, social, and behavioral psychology; and marketing models of organizational and consumer behavior.
"Individuals make the decision to-take or not-to-take a prescription medication over 500 million times a day in the United States," said Schommer. "A person's regular interaction with medications is not only a frequently and consistently occurring health care event, it also interfaces with almost all other aspects of his or her health care. As the U.S. health care system moves away from fragmented approaches and closer to a team-based, patient-centered care approach, there is a need for a way to unify and coordinate individuals' health care, even as these individuals enter and exit various components of the health care system and as they shift between their preferred identity as a person and their sometimes necessary identity as a patient. We suggest that the 'medication experience' (an individual's subjective experience of taking a medication in his or her daily life) can be used as a unifying and coordinating concept to bridge this dichotomy and that the pharmacist's role is central in this domain."
As the Peters Chair, Schommer plans to collaborate with colleagues around the country and conduct the 2015 National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience. See pilot study findings. The 2015 survey will collect data from over 30,000 people and will describe the U.S. adult population in terms of their medication experiences and their views of pharmacists' roles. The findings will be useful and impactful for:
- expanding the identification and description of segments of the population based on components of the medication experience
- incorporating components of the medication experience into patient care processes
- building systems for identifying and matching patients and providers based upon preferences and capacities in the medication experience domain.
Schommer received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a faculty fellow in the college's Center for Leading Healthcare Change and the director of graduate studies in the Social and Administrative Pharmacy graduate program.
Projects
2013 National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience
- See Final Report on 2013 National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience (PDF)
- See Slides on 2013 National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience (PPTX)
- See interactive map that summarizes descriptive findings by U.S. Census Division
Over 500 million times a day in the United States, individuals make the decision to-take or not-to-take a prescription medication. Eighty percent of the way chronic diseases are prevented and managed is with medications. In any given week, 81% of U.S. adults take at least one medication, and nearly one-third take five or more different medications. A person’s regular interaction with medications is not only a frequently and consistently occurring health care event, it also interfaces with almost all other aspects of his or her health care.
As the U.S. health-care system moves away from fragmented approaches and closer to a patient-centered care approach, there is a need for a way to unify and coordinate individual’s health care even as these individual’s enter and exit various components of the health-care system and as they shift between their preferred identity as a person and their sometimes necessary identity as a patient. We suggest that the “medication experience” can be used as a unifying and coordinating concept to bridge this dichotomy.
A person’s medication experience is his or her personal approach to the use of medicines and is shaped by a person’s traditions, religion, culture, life experiences, and what they have learned from others. A person’s medication experience influences: expectations for care, concerns about care, understanding of care, involvement in care, levels of confidence in health care services, confidence in clinicians’ abilities, trust in information, medication-taking behaviors, and other health-related behaviors.
Study Objectives and Methods
The overall goal for the National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience was to collect initial data for describing respondents’ medication experiences. The specific objectives for this study were to identify and describe consumer segments based on the following components of the medication experience:
- Healthcare consumer type
- Medication beliefs
- Patient activation
- Information seeking
- Nature of interactions with health professionals for decision-making
The findings showed that the medication experience is more than a clinical experience … it is a social and personal experience. Typically, the health care system views the medication experience in terms of clinical problem-solving (prescribing, monitoring, reconciling) and in terms of medication regimen adherence (following directions). Our findings revealed that the medication experience is rooted in medication beliefs, personal abilities and motivations, information processing, decision-making, relationships, finances, and the effects of life experiences.
Patients vary widely in their make-up, their preferences, and their needs. Some patients don’t want to receive any information from others about their medications while others desire to take an active role in making decisions about them. Some people want information about effects of medications and others want to know about safety. In addition, when people seek information about medicines, there is a high likelihood that they will involve a personal contact, either lay or professional, in their search. This all underlines the importance of social networks in the decisions we make about prescription drugs. Patients have different abilities, motivations, and needs when it comes to medication use. The challenge, then, is to meet the needs of each individual.
We propose that the findings provide insights for (a) establishing national priorities for patient-centered outcomes research, (b) accounting for treatment heterogeneity in comparative-effectiveness studies, and (c) incorporating individuals’ medication experiences into improved quality and efficiency of health care. For more information, contact Jon Schommer, PhD (schom010@umn.edu). Funding for this research was provided by the University of Minnesota Grant Award Program.
2015 National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience and Pharmacists' Roles
A survey of 30,600 individuals from the United States will be conducted to address the following research questions: (1) what are the medication experiences of the U.S. adult population, (2) can this population be categorized into distinct segments, (3) what are the characteristics of those segments, and (4) is there state-to-state variation in the findings? The findings will provide insights for (a) incorporating components of the medication experience into patient care processes, (b)building systems for identifying and matching patients and providers based upon preferences and capacities in the medication experience domain, (c) enhancing the pharmacist’s role in this domain, (d) establishing national priorities for patient-centered medication experience research, (e) accounting for treatment heterogeneity in medication related comparative-effectiveness studies, (f) adding insights for data-driven personalized medicine, and (g) incorporating individuals’ medication experiences into improved quality and efficiency of health care.
Collaboration with St. John's Univ., Dept. of Clinical Health Professions, and New York City Dept. of Health
Collaboration with Faculty at St. John's University Department of Pharmacy Administration and Public Health; Department of Clinical Health Professions; and New York City Department of Health.
Jon Schommer, met with colleagues at St. John's University April 1 to 4 to collaborate research regarding Public Health. He presented a seminar on his work related to the National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience & Pharmacists' Roles.
University of Minnesota alums, Dr. Wenchen Kenneth Wu, Dr. Jagannath Muzumdar, and Dr. Vibhuti Arya currently work at St. John's University, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and were able to meet with Dr. Schommer.
2015 National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience
Collaboration with Paul Tieger, CEO of SpeedReadingPeople.com
On May 27, 2016, Dr. Jon Schommer and Dr. Tony Olson collaborated with Paul Tieger, CEO of SpeedReadingPeople.com in order to translate findings from the 2015 National Consumer Survey on the Medication Experience into "new systems for communicating with patients, using proven techniques, for instantly understanding them, so that health care providers can tailor their approaches for maximum impact." More information about SpeedReadingPeople.com can be found at: http://speedreadingpeople.com/