Clare Fowler

Prof Clare Fowler CBE is a British physician and academic who created the subspecialty of uro-neurology, a medical field that combines urology and neurology. This work was done at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, where she is an emeritus professor.

Early in her career she worked at the Middlesex Hospital and then the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen's Square, London, and carried out research in the field of clinical neurophysiology, looking at how nerves work to control the muscles used to control passing urine, work that formed the basis of Fowler's future contributions to continence issues in people with neurological conditions. Her name is given to Fowler's syndrome, a potentially treatable condition in which young women experience urinary retention. With colleagues, she disproved that these women's symptoms were primarily psychological or hysterical and showed that a significant proportion of them could be treated using a type of electrical stimulation therapy, sacral neuromodulation.

In 1987 she established the Department of Uro-Neurology and led trials looking at treatments for urinary retention in women, sildenafil in men with multiple sclerosis and sexual dysfunction, as well as treatments for the symptoms of severe overactive bladders. She assisted with establishing botox detrusor injections as a treatment for people with overactive bladders who did not improve with usual medications.

In 2001 she became professor of Uro-Neurology, and was awarded the British Association of Urological Surgeons's (BAUS) St Peter's Medal in 2010. In 2012 she received the award of Commander the British Empire for services to Uro-neurology.

Her book Pharmacopoeia Londinensis 1618 and its descendants, was published by the Royal College of Physicians in 2018.