Our Team

As a Consultant Urological Surgeon at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh since 2001, Alan provides a specialist urology service with particular interests in prostate diseases and kidney surgery. He was Lead Clinician for Urology from 2007-2011, and was elected as Secretary of the British Association of Urological Surgeons Section of Oncology Executive Committee in 2011. Having undertaken fellowship training in minimal access surgery (MAS) techniques at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio and the University Hospital, Leipzig, he has lead the development of the laparoscopic surgery programme in Urology at local and national levels.
Alan has the largest experience of minimal access surgical procedures in Scotland and is amongst the most experienced laparoscopic urological surgeons in the UK. He has performed over 400 laparoscopic nephrectomies and 750 laparoscopic prostatectomies the results of which are subject to rigorous audit, as part of local and national audit programmes.

He has published many peer-reviewed papers and is actively involved in research into prostate disease with a collaborative project between Edinburgh and Heriot Watt Universities that is funded by a £1M grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. A former Programme Director for the East of Scotland Training Programme in Urology (2004-2007) Alan remains very active in skills training for minimal access surgery, organizing and participating in several courses that are run for the British Association of Urological Surgeons and have helped several other surgeons implement their own laparoscopic surgery programmes.
In 2006 he initiated and helped establish Prostate Scotland, a charity that aims to raise awareness and educate Scottish men about the prostate and the diseases that affect it. Sir Tom Farmer has become Patron of the charity that goes from strength to strength, employing two staff part-funded by a project grant from the Scottish Government.

Recently, Alan has been awarded the title of Honorary Professor in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot Watt University for a 5 years period. This is a consequence of a successful research collaboration with Professor Bob Reuben over the last 16 years.