The study of the past with regards to medical history has been an underemphasized component of the medical school curriculum for several reasons.

These have included the lack of direct or immediate clinical impact, the emergence of new disciplines such as medical ethics, expansion of the existing knowledge base, as well as a lack of research grants and funding. The curriculum in graduate medical education struggles to cope with the explosion of new information related to basic and applied sciences. The elimination of questions related to history in certifying examinations could be considered a fatal blow. This study explored the teaching of history of regional anesthesia (HORA) and proposes a curriculum for such education.

A formal curriculum has not been described in published literature, even the latest guidelines for fellowship training in regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine published by ASRA in 2015 did not include a curriculum to teach HORA. We propose a curriculum related to a variety of topics that would provide useful information and enrich the educational experience of trainees. It is suggested that this briefly formatted review of HORA could be used as a starting point for teaching and research to place major events of this specialty in an historical context.