Integrating the Warwick Holistic Health Questionnaire (WHHQ-18) into routine traditional, complementary and integrative medicine practice: a reflective practice paper with two illustrative case studies

This paper describes the implementation of the Warwick Holistic Health Questionnaire (WHHQ-18), a whole-person patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), within routine traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) practice and illustrates how PROM findings may contribute to practitioner reflection, client dialogue, treatment planning, and evaluation of client progress within a person-centred approach to care. The whole-person perspective offered by PROMs may be particularly relevant to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), where assessment and treatment are individualised and informed by a holistic understanding of the person.

Using a reflective practice case study approach informed by one author’s direct clinical experience, we describe the implementation of the WHHQ-18 within routine clinical practice and explore its use in supporting clinical evaluation, practitioner-client dialogue, treatment planning, and the monitoring of changes in whole-person wellbeing.

The process of implementing the WHHQ-18 into routine clinical practice is described alongside two illustrative case studies. Findings demonstrate how PROM data can complement client narratives and practitioner observations, providing a structured framework for assessing wellbeing, informing clinical reasoning, and evaluating change over time.

The WHHQ-18 appears to be a feasible and useful tool for supporting clinical evaluation within routine TCIM practice. Within TCM, whole-person PROMs may complement established approaches to assessment and clinical reasoning by providing a structured patient-reported perspective on changes in health and wellbeing. Understanding the practical considerations, challenges, and benefits of implementation may encourage wider adoption of whole-person PROMs to support reflective practice, person-centred care, and outcome evaluation.