Steganography techniques for ECG signals : A survey

Abstract

Medical Images have been widely used to diagnose and detect the abnormalities in the human body. In this study, we have focused on ECG (Electrocardiography) signals which play a vital role in diagnosing Cardio Vascular Disease (CVD). CVD is most prevalent among the people because of changing lifestyle, Age, Tobacco, etc. According to the WHO (World Health Organization) report in 2012, around 17 million people die each year because of CVD, which represents 31% of the overall death rate. Due to the advancement in the e-Health care system, most of the ECG signals along with the patient's sensitive data are transmitted among doctors and hospitals for detailed analysis. According to the HIPAA act, it should be made sure that patient's details are to be sent securely during the transmission. In this study various ECG Steganography techniques that have been used by researchers are discussed; in which patient details and diagnosis report are embedded into ECG signals.