Orthanc was initiated by Sébastien Jodogne in 2011 as a
postdoctoral researcher at CHU de Liège. The initial public release happened on . For his work on Orthanc, Sébastien Jodogne received the 2014
Advancement of Free Software award. Orthanc also received the
Agoria award for the best 2015 e-health project in Belgium. Between 2017 and 2021, the development has been supported by the Osimis company, still with Sébastien Jodogne as the lead developer. Since 2021, the development has been handled both by Alain Mazy with financial support from Open Collective, and by the health informatics research team led by Sébastien Jodogne at
Université Catholique de Louvain. Orthanc was recognized as a
digital public good by the
Digital Public Goods Alliance in August 2023. ==Distribution==