A Novel Entropy-based Reversible Data Hiding during Encryption

Recent advances in telemedicine services involve frequent communication and analysis of medical images. Confidentiality of medical images is a major concern in medical image transmission which can be achieved through image encryption. In this paper, we propose a new entropy-based reversible data hiding scheme through encryption for secure and confidential medical image transmission. The scheme discussed in this paper allows the embedding of electronic patient record (EPR) or diagnosis results in the image section in a reversible manner. In the proposed scheme, the encryption process is modified in such a way that the sender can embed secret message bits into the image during encryption. Further, at the receiver side, the embedded information can be extracted along with the recovery of the original image through an entropy-based image analysis during image decryption phase. The experimental study on standard images shows that the proposed scheme is able to achieve a good embedding rate with lesser bit error rate.