A Short History of Vascular Access Care

Gerald Beathard, MD, PhD, is a guru is the purest sense of the word. At one time, he had trained everyone doing interventional nephrology, or had trained the person an interventional nephrologist had trained with. Of course, that’s no longer true as interventional nephrology has blossomed since Beathard helped pioneer the field in the early 1980s. “That’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s not often someone like myself has the opportunity to have that much impact on patients around the country. I feel blessed.”

As a nephrologist concerned with his patients, Beathard said he saw a need to focus on their access care. “I also enjoyed technical procedures and just starting doing it,” he added. “Other people from around the country started hearing about it. I started writing papers and presenting at meetings. They started to contact me one at a time to train, and it has continued.”

What started as a small operation transformed how nephrology viewed vascular access. Fistulas have become widely accepted as the preferred modality and the field has excited a new breed of nephrologist looking to hone more technical skills. Adoption of fistulas and the growth of outpatient vascular access centers, however, has been slow but steady marked by a steady drumbeat of awareness.