Secure medical images based on data hiding using a hybrid scheme with the Hamming code, LSB, and OPAP

Abstract

Some medical accidents in hospitals are related to mismanagement of medical images X-ray and computer tomography (CT). A counterfeit medical image leads to medical accidents. Thus, security of medical images is important for patient safety. Data hiding can help patients avoid mistakes of doctors or nurses who confuse patient X-rays or CT scans. A hybrid data hiding scheme was applied that combined the Hamming code and LSB with an optimal pixel adjustment process algorithm for encoding to conceal hidden patient information. In addition, quality and capacity of stego-images were improved. Experimental results confirmed that the hiding capacity provided by this strategy is greater than for other schemes. Moreover, the image quality of stego-images with the proposed scheme remained more than 50 dB for most medical test images. In this experiment, we verified the proposed steganographic data hiding scheme as RS steganalysis.