  One of the most noticeable trends in healthcare over the last years is the
continuous growth of data volume produced and its heterogeneity. In the medical
imaging field, the evolution of digital systems is supported by the PACS
concept and the DICOM standard. These technologies are deeply grounded in
medical laboratories, supporting the production and providing healthcare
practitioners with the ability to set up collaborative work environments with
researchers and academia to study and improve healthcare practice. However, the
complexity of those systems and protocols makes difficult and time-consuming to
prototype new ideas or develop applied research, even for skilled users with
training in those environments. Dicoogle emerges as a reference tool to achieve
those objectives through a set of resources aggregated in the form of a
learning pack. It is an open-source PACS archive that, on the one hand,
provides a comprehensive view of the PACS and DICOM technologies and, on the
other hand, provides the user with tools to easily expand its core
functionalities. This paper describes the Dicoogle framework, with particular
emphasis in its Learning Pack package, the resources available and the impact
of the platform in research and academia. It starts by presenting an overview
of its architectural concept, the most recent research backed up by Dicoogle,
some remarks obtained from its use in teaching, and worldwide usage statistics
of the software. Moreover, a comparison between the Dicoogle platform and the
most popular open-source PACS in the market is presented.
