Peter Cotton was born in England, educated at Cambridge University and at St. Thomas Hospital Medical School (London). He became interested in endoscopy in the late 1960's with the introduction of flexible fiberscopes, and developed units at St. Thomas' Hospital and at the Middlesex Hospital, which pioneered 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 at Duke University in North Carolina, and developed a state of the art endoscopy center. He maintained his interests in teaching, new techniques, and careful outcome evaluation. He moved to Charleston, South Carolina in 1994 to initiate and lead a Digestive Disease Center, dedicated to multi-disciplinary patient care, and the research and education needed to enhance it.
He has been active in many National and International organizations, and has given invited lectures and demonstrations in more than 50 countries. He helped form the British Society for Digestive Endoscopy, and served the British Society of Gastroenterology as its vice president and treasurer. He was secretary of the European Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and president of the Pancreatic Society of Great Britain. He was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 1978, and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2002. He is an honorary member of the British Society of Gastroenterology, the Hong Kong Society for Digestive Endoscopy, and the South African Gastroenterology Society. Dr Cotton was awarded the Rudolph Schindler award of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in 2004.
His bibliography includes over 850 publications, including more than 250 original contributions in peer reviewed journals, and 8 books. Practical Gastrointestinal Endoscopy; (co-authored by Christopher Williams) is the standard teaching text, currently in its 6th Edition, and has been translated into 8 languages.
In recent years Dr Cotton has become interested and active particularly in quality issues in endoscopy, including objective assessment of performance, benchmarking and report cards.