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Patients electronic heath records safeguarding mechanism based on data hiding and blockchain

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Abstract

The diagnosis of patients is significantly influenced by medical imaging. These images are frequently transmitted over the network for timely and accurate diagnosis. On the external networks, these medical images are prone to attack. Therefore, medical images are encrypted before transmission; this single layer of protection is not sufficient. Recently, the idea of embedding patient personal information, such as patient identity and medical records, in medical images via reversible data hiding (RDH) in the encrypted image has been proposed. Still, these schemes suffer from low embedding rates. In this paper, a RDH mechanism based on an interpolation scheme and histogram shifting is highlighted. In the proposed method, the achievable embedding capacity (EC) is 1 bit per pixel (bpp). The image encryption is achieved using blockchain technology based on 3 keys. The proposed blockchain mechanism is safe from external attacks. The results are compared with the state-of-the-art methods for both digital and medical images to validate the usefulness of the proposed method.

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Correspondence to Abhinandan Tripathi.

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Tripathi, A., Prakash, J. Patients electronic heath records safeguarding mechanism based on data hiding and blockchain. Proc.Indian Natl. Sci. Acad. 89, 689–704 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43538-023-00178-6

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