I get e-mail from readers after almost every issue of this newsletter. Some are complimentary, some have questions, and on more than one occasion I've been asked, "Where do you come up with this stuff wonderful and insightful information?" The answer is easy: the Internet.

I don't know if Al Gore actually invented it but I consider the Internet to be one of the greatest public health developments of all time, right behind eyeglasses (who woulda thought this would be my #1 pick?) and the toothbrush. I mean, we all know the impact of the Internet on our practice. We also know once we've given our patient a diagnosis the first thing our patient is going to do is hurry home and "Google" it. How many times have you been asked to "Please write that down for me?" The Internet makes a world of information available to us, and to our patients, and those results can be both good and bad.

For our example here, a "Google" search of "dry eye" will yield about 27,800,000 results. And no, I did not look at them all but I do have my own personal favorites that have helped me out and I thought I'd share some of them with you.

Let's start with one of our own: the AOA. http://www.aoa.org. Other great sites are listed below:

• The National Institutes of Health presents "Facts About Dry Eye": http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/dryeye/dryeye.asp.
• The Sjogren's Syndrome Foundation has a nice patient education page: http://www.sjogrens.org/home/about-sjogrens-syndrome/symptoms/dry-eyes and an excellent list of resources available from the SSF.
• The Food and Drug Administration has a PDF on "Dealing with Dry Eye" from their FDA Consumer magazine: http://www.focusondryeye.com/_articles/Dealing_with_Dry_Eye.pdf.
• The National Library of Medicine has a "Dry Eye Syndrome" fact page at PubMed Health: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001462/
  
• One that I have found useful is the American Academy of Ophthalmology Preferred Practice Pattern on Dry Eye: http://www.aao.org/ppp.
• The Dry Eye Summit has a nice website with useful information; however it isn't updated as often as I would like: http://www.dryeyesummit.org/

• WebMD has an entire "Eye Health Center" on their site that discusses dry eye and a number of ocular conditions: http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/eye-health-dry-eyes.
• eMedicineHealth likewise has a page devoted to dry eye: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/dry_eye_syndrome/article_em.html.
• Another great site for patients to learn about their particular vision condition is Allaboutvision: http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/dryeye.htm. One nice feature of Allaboutvision is the articles are written or reviewed by eye care professionals. The dry eye zone touts itself as a resource center for people with severe or chronic dry eye who are looking for relief and treatment of dry eye. It also has a community forum page for dry eye patients to share their stories, http://www.dryeyezone.com/.
• In addition to their product pages, Allergan sponsors dryeye.com (http://www.dryeye.com/) and mydryeyes.com.
• Dry eye info.org touts itself as "The Definitive Source for Dry Eye Information on the Internet", albeit several years old. However, their dry eye introduction is available is Spanish, Italian and German: http://www.dryeyeinfo.org/.
• The Dry Eye Company was established in 2004 to "improve quality of life for people suffering from chronic dry eye by helping them access the best information, professional care, and consumer products available." This page has a "Clinical Trials Roster" that lets me know what's in the drug pipeline: http://www.dryeyecompany.com/.

• Alcon: http://www.alcon.com/en/alcon-products/dry-eyes.aspx
• All about dry eye, a TearLab sponsored site: http://allaboutdryeye.com/find-a-doctor/
• Allergan: http://www.allergan.com/treatments/eye_care/dry_eye.htm
• Bausch + Lomb: http://www.bausch.com/en/Our-Products/Eye-drops-ointments/Dry-Eye-Products
• Eye Supply USA (our newsletter sponsor): http://www.eyesupplyusa.com/shop/category/130/punctal-occluders/comfortear
• Freshkote: http://www.freshkote.com/dry-eye_5001_ct.aspx
• Lipiflow: http://www.lipiflow.com/dryeye
• Refresh: http://www.refreshbrand.com/html/consumer/quiz.asp
• Restasis: http://www.restasis.com/default.htm?x=Restasis
• Systane: http://www.systane.com/
• TearScience: http://www.tearscience.com/en/
• Theratears: http://www.theratears.com/