An Integrated Method of Data Hiding and Compression of Medical Images

A new technique for embedding data into an image coupled with compression has been proposed in this paper. A fast and efficient coding algorithms are needed for effective storage and transmission, due to the popularity of telemedicine and the use of digital medical images. Medical images are produced and transferred between hospitals for review by physicians who are geographically apart. Such image data need to be stored for future reference of patients as well. This necessitates compact storage of medical images before being transmitted over Internet. Moreover, as the patient information is also embedded within the medical images, it is very important to maintain the confidentiality of patient data. Hence, this article aims at hiding patient information as well, within the medical image followed by joint compression. The hidden data and the host image are absolutely recoverable from the embedded image without any loss.