New Book Challenges Optometrists to Put Dry Eye at the Heart of Everyday Practice

A Gold Coast optometrist and dry eye specialist is calling on the profession to stop treating dry eye as a peripheral concern and a new book due in September makes the case for why.

Dr Shaina Zheng, founder of Dry Eye Impact and Vice President of the Dry Eye Society, will release The Dry Eye Imperative in September 2026, a clinician-focused book that argues dry eye has been systematically underserved in routine optometry not because practitioners don't care, but because many lack a clear, confident starting point.

The book arrives at a time when dry eye presentations are among the most common in the consulting room, yet patient outcomes frequently fall short. Dr Zheng contends the problem is structural as much as clinical: patients minimise their symptoms, stop seeking help, or assume eye drops are the extent of what's available to them often because the conversation in the consult room hasn't gone deep enough.

"Dry eye can sound small from the outside, but for many patients it affects how they work, drive, read, use screens, and get through their day," Dr Zheng said. "My hope is that this book helps optometrists feel less overwhelmed and more able to begin because meaningful dry eye care does not have to start with complexity. It starts with listening differently and giving patients a clearer way forward."

Reframing the Conversation

Central to the book is the CARE Method, a four-step framework standing for Connect, Assess, Reframe, and Empower, designed to give optometrists a repeatable structure for integrating dry eye into standard care without requiring advanced equipment or specialist referral pathways from the outset.

Rather than positioning dry eye as a subspecialty requiring high-tech diagnostics, The Dry Eye Imperative makes the case for incremental, patient-centred practice changes: asking better questions, explaining clinical findings in plain language, assigning "dry eye homework," and building in review appointments to track progress.

The book draws on Dr Zheng's own lived experience with dry eye, alongside patient stories and clinical practice insights, a combination she says brings together the patient-side perspective that is often missing from clinical education.

A Broader Professional Opportunity

Beyond individual practice, Dr Zheng frames the book as a prompt for the profession to reconsider where dry eye sits in the consultation hierarchy. She argues that moving dry eye from the edge of the appointment to its core is both a clinical responsibility and a professional opportunity one that doesn't require overhauling a practice overnight.

Practical tools outlined in the book include baseline care prompts and structured approaches to follow-up, elements designed to be workable in high-volume general practice settings, not just dedicated dry eye clinics.

Dr Zheng practises alongside her husband, Jackson Yip, also an optometrist and business partner, and is active in the dry eye education space through her work with the Dry Eye Society.

The Dry Eye Imperative will be available from September 2026 via dryeyeimpact.com.au/the-book.