Patient Data Hiding and Transmitting during COVID-19 for Telemedicine Application using Image Steganography

Aim of the Study After the COVID-19 pandemic, every individual needs to be more aware of their health. The condition of the human body is ged based on various health reports like X-rays, CT scan, and MRI scans. Moreover, due to misplacement or loss of medical reports, there is a high probabaility of improper diagnosis. Methods In order to avoid improper diagnosis, a novel data-hiding technique is proposed in this work. In the proposed method, the patient's health records are hidden using polynomial theory in the patient photograph. This is used by doctors in telemedicine for better treatment at the right time. Image steganography is useful for hiding secret images and also for generating secret keys. This enables only the authorized people (patient and corresponding doctor) to access the reports using secret keys. Results Four secret images (medical reports of the patient) are successfully embedded onto a single cover image (patient photo) with good quality. After embedding, the stego images look like cover images so that unauthorized persons will not be able to access the data, and hence, safe transmission is being carried out. Conclusion A patient's medical report plays an important role in proper medical treatment. Particularly in telemedicine, the safe transmission of patient reports without any loss or damage is necessary. The proposed method embeds reports of a patient in his/her photo and transmits them to the destination safely with a quality of 45.5 dB. This hiding method is helpful to avoid cyber crimes, illegal transactions, malpractices etc.