Advanced Digestive Endoscopy

Peter Cotton was born in England, educated at CambridgeUniversity and at St. Thomas Hospital Medical School (London). Hebecame interested in endoscopy in the late 1960's with theintroduction of flexible fiberscopes, and developed units at St.Thomas' Hospital and at the Middlesex Hospital, whichpioneered and evaluated many diagnostic and therapeutic procedures,particularly ERCP. He attracted postgraduates from many countries,held numerous teaching courses, and introduced live CCTV workshops.In 1986 he became Professor of Medicine and Chief of Endoscopy atDuke University in North Carolina, and developed a state of the artendoscopy center. He maintained his interests in teaching, newtechniques, and careful outcome evaluation. He moved to Charleston,South Carolina in 1994 to initiate and lead a Digestive DiseaseCenter, dedicated to multi-disciplinary patient care, and theresearch and education needed to enhance it. He has been active in many National and Internationalorganizations, and has given invited lectures and demonstrations inmore than 50 countries. He helped form the British Society forDigestive Endoscopy, and served the British Society ofGastroenterology as its vice president and treasurer. He wassecretary of the European Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy,and president of the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain. He waselected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 1978,and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2002. He is anhonorary member of the British Society of Gastroenterology, theHong Kong Society for Digestive Endoscopy, and the South AfricanGastroenterology Society. Dr Cotton was awarded the RudolphSchindler award of the American Society for GastrointestinalEndoscopy in 2004. His bibliography includes over 850 publications, including morethan 250 original contributions in peer reviewed journals, and 8books. "Practical Gastrointestinal Endoscopy"(co-authored by Christopher Williams) is the standard teachingtext, currently in its 6th Edition, and has been translated into 8languages. In recent years Dr Cotton has become interested and activeparticularly in quality issues in endoscopy, including objectiveassessment of performance, benchmarking and report cards.