With the rapid advancement of telemedicine technologies, the secure exchange of medical images has become a critical concern for healthcare centers, particularly those relying on the DICOM standard—one of the most sophisticated and widely adopted standards in this domain.
In this study, we propose an encryption scheme that employs different algorithms based on the significance of the processed data. A hybrid model is applied to the region of interest (ROI) through a two-phase approach.
🔹 Phase One involves a dual-level scrambling at both the bit and pixel levels. This is achieved by integrating the Y-Index scanning model, which disrupts the correlation between adjacent pixels, with a two-dimensional Henon map.
🔹 Phase Two utilizes stream encryption through an enhanced version of the RC4 algorithm, designed to improve security and address key-related vulnerabilities.
To reduce overall encryption time, we adopt an efficient and straightforward method for segmenting the pixel matrix of DICOM images using the automatic OTSU algorithm. A low-complexity algorithm is then applied to the image background region. Additionally, high-speed and robust protection of patient textual data extracted from the DICOM image is ensured using a modified version of the AES algorithm, achieving a processing time of 0.2382 seconds.
The effectiveness of the proposed scheme was evaluated using security metrics such as NPCR, UACI, and PSNR, which reached values of 99.95%, 33.26%, and 5.572 respectively. Further validation was conducted through histogram analysis, correlation coefficient assessment—yielding values close to zero—and entropy measurement, which reached 7.9993.
The Aleppo Research Journal.
2024.
Secure Suggested Method for Medical Images Transmission in DICOM Standard
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