prof alan cottenden
Research
Themes
- 1
- Ageing
- 76
- Human Wellbeing
- 19
- Materials
- Prof
- Alan
- Michael
- Cottenden
- Prof Alan Cottenden
- Ex: 30298
- a.cottenden@ucl.ac.uk
- https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/extResource/image/01/ACOTT52
- 1984-02-08
- ACAPRO
- 1984-02-08
- 1
- Professor of Incontinence Technology
- EA
- Dept of Medical Phys & Bioengineering
- ENG
- Faculty of Engineering Science
- 1984-02-08
Research Summary
For the last 30 years my research has focused on technology for managing intractable incontinence. A key characteristic of the research group is that, through a combination of our own expertise and that of numerous collaborators in the academic, clinical and industry worlds, we have been able to tackle a broad diversity of multi-disciplinary projects.
We have run clinical trials on most categories of incontinence products, making the data available to people with incontinence, their caregivers and others seeking to make informed product selections. The four-yearly (or so) International Consultations on Incontinence have provided an excellent vehicle for us to trawl the literature and provide evidence-based guidance on product selection for clinicians and, from 2013, making the information available and accessible to the general public via a website (www.continenceproductadvisor.org).
Our evaluation work is also the life-blood of our technical programme, yielding insights into problems that need addressing and ideas for better products. We hold around 20 patents and our most successful product to date is Kylie Pants – washable pants for lightly incontinent men, women and children – which are now available in about 15 countries. Another major strand of our work is studying the complex mix of materials – nonwovens, knitted and woven fabrics, felts, fluff pulp webs, superabsorbent polymers - used in absorbent pads. We have identified a number of simple laboratory tests that yield clinically important data on product performance and some of these have been captured in International Standards. One of them forms the basis for UK NHS national purchasing of incontinence pads. Another major interest is in understanding – through experimental and mathematical modeling work – the skin damage which incontinence pads can cause to their wearers.
- 6236
- Clinical Evaluation of Incontinence Products
- 6237
- Guidance for users of incontinence products and healthcare professionals
- 6238
- Incontinence associated skin problems
- 6239
- International standards
- 6240
- Remote sensing of incontinence events
In vivo stratum corneum over-hydration and water diffusion coefficient measurements using opto-thermal radiometry and TEWL instruments
Individual budgets for people with incontinence: results from a 'shopping' experiment within the British National Health Service.
Development and preliminary testing of a standardized method for quantifying excess water in over-hydrated skin using evaporimetry
Continence products: research priorities to improve the lives of people with urinary and/or fecal leakage.
Review of methods used for quantifying excess water in over-hydrated skin using evaporimetry
Review of methods used for quantifying excess water in over-hydrated skin using evaporimetry
Academic Background
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Award YearQualificationInstitution
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1979MAUniversity of Cambridge
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1979PhDUniversity of Cambridge
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1975BAUniversity of Cambridge
Biography
I am currently Professor of Incontinence Technology at UCL. I read Natural Sciences at Christ’s College Cambridge - specialising in Materials Science – before taking up an EPSRC PhD studentship between Cambridge and the National Physical Laboratory to work on the mechanical properties of machine tool materials. I then switched my focus to Medicine and moved to Sussex University to conduct a project for EPSRC to determine research funding priorities in Biomedical Engineering and identify an area for my own future work. I decided to focus on technology for managing intractable incontinence and initially worked at Sussex before moving to UCL in 1984 to work with Prof James Malone-Lee (geriatrician) and Prof Mandy Fader (nurse), collaborations which continue to the present. I have over 250 scientific and clinical publications, refereed conference contributions and patents and have given over 100 invited lectures. I am a Trustee of the UK Bladder & Bowel Foundation, a member of the Advisory Board of the US Simon Foundation, and the British Standards Institute and International Standards Organisation committees on incontinence technology, and have coauthored numerous international standards, one of which forms the basis for national purchasing of incontinence pads in the UK. I chair the organising committees for the world’s only two conferences on incontinence technology; the Incontinence: the Engineering Challenge series run in London by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Innovating for Continence series run by the Simon Foundation in Chicago. I have contributed to all five WHO International Consultations on Incontinence, leading on the incontinence technology chapter, and co-directing the creation of a website (www.continenceproductadvisor.org) in 2013 to make its contents available to people with incontinence and their caregivers.
- CMR
- JGMAL68
- prof james malone-lee
- NCOVE55
- dr nick ovenden
- 2550
- Prof Heather Gage
- 2551
- Dr Perry Xiao
- 2552
- Mr Hakan Leander
- 2549
- Prof Mandy Fader
