An Efficient Solution to Secure Embedded Information in DICOM Images for Telemedicine

Abstract

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is an international data standard used worldwide to store and transmit various medical images. In addition to the image pixel data, DICOM files also consist of private information and other important information for diagnosis. However, they are easily modified, and alterations are not detectable with current DICOM file format. Consequently, the security of this kind of data over the Internet arises more challenges. This paper presents an efficient solution to secure embedded information in DICOM images by exploiting different techniques of data encoding, encryption and watermarking. Firstly, the proposed method encodes personal information, encrypts it and then embeds it into the DICOM images by two secret keys to increase the security. After that, personal information is removed from the DICOM images. As a result, medical images are still handled in both normal mode and secure mode without leakage of personal information. Finally, the experimental results on different medical images demonstrate the imperceptibility, capacity and efficiency of the proposed design to discuss its use in telemedicine.