Aggeliki Giakoumaki

Multiple Image Watermarking Applied to Health Information Management

Information technology advances have brought forth new challenges in healthcare information management, due to the vast amount of medical data that needs to be efficiently stored, retrieved, and distributed, and the increased security threats that explicitly have to be addressed. The paper discusses the perspectives of digital watermarking in a range of medical data management and distribution issues, and proposes a complementary and/or alternative tool that simultaneously addresses medical data protection, archiving, and retrieval, as well as source and data authentication. The scheme imperceptibly embeds in medical images multiple watermarks conveying patients personal and examination data, keywords for information retrieval, the physicians digital signature for authentication, and a reference message for data integrity control. Experimental results indicate the efficiency and transparency of the scheme, which conforms to the strict requirements that apply to regions of diagnostic significance

Secure and efficient health data management through multiple watermarking on medical images

The landscape of healthcare delivery and medical data management has significantly changed over the last years, as a result of the significant advancements in information and communication technologies. Complementary and/or alternative solutions are needed to meet the new challenges, especially regarding security of the widely distributed sensitive medical information. Digital watermarking is a recently established research area with many applications; nevertheless, the potential of this technology to contribute value-added services to medical information management systems has only recently started to be realized by the research community. The paper presents a review of research efforts in the area of medical-oriented watermarking and proposes a wavelet-based multiple watermarking scheme; this scheme aims to address critical health information management issues, including origin and data authentication, protection of sensitive data, and image archiving and retrieval. In accordance with the strict limitations applying to medical images, the scheme allows the definition of a region of interest (ROI) whose diagnostic value is protected, since the only additional information embedded therein aims at integrity control. The robustness of the method is enhanced through a form of hybrid coding, which includes repetitive embedding of BCH encoded watermarks. The experimental results on different medical imaging modalities demonstrate the efficiency and transparency of the watermarking scheme.

A medical image watermarking scheme based on wavelet transform

A wavelet-based multiple watermarking scheme is proposed, which addresses the problems of medical confidentiality protection and both origin and data authentication. The scheme embeds multiple watermarks serving different purposes: a robust watermark containing the doctors digital signature for authentication, a caption watermark with patients personal and examination related data, and a fragile watermark for the purpose of data integrity control. Thus, the proposed added-value tool offers alternatives for different issues associated with medical data management and distribution. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the watermarking scheme, which fulfills the strict requirements concerning the acceptable alterations of medical images.

A Multiple Watermarking Scheme Applied to Medical Image Management

Digital watermarking is a recently emerged research area, which has the potential of providing alternative/complementary solutions for a number of issues relating to medical data management and distribution. The present paper aims to reveal the perspectives of digital watermarking in health information systems, and proposes a wavelet-based multiple watermarking scheme that addresses the issues of medical data protection, archiving, and retrieval, as well as of origin and data authentication. The scheme applies multiple watermarking in medical images, and embeds in them the physicians digital signature, patients personal and examination data, keywords for image retrieval, and a reference watermark for the purpose of data integrity control. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and transparency of the watermarking scheme, which conforms to the strict limitations that apply to regions of diagnostic significance.

Digital Watermarking in Telemedicine Applications - Towards Enhanced Data Security and Accessibility

Implementing telemedical solutions has become a trend amongst the various research teams at an international level. Yet, contemporary information access and distribution technologies raise critical issues that urgently need to be addressed, especially those related to security. The paper suggests the use of watermarking in telemedical applications in order to enhance security of the transmitted sensitive medical data, familiarizes the users with a telemedical system and a watermarking module that have already been developed, and proposes an architecture that will enable the integration of the two systems, taking into account a variety of use cases and application scenarios

Multiple Digital Watermarking Applied to Medical Imaging

Beyond its already established wide range of applications, digital watermarking has recently started to gain a foothold in the healthcare sector. The paper discusses the potential of multiple watermarking to address a number of health information management issues, such as protection of sensitive data, origin and data authentication, image archiving and retrieval. A wavelet-based multiple watermarking scheme focusing on these medical-oriented applications is presented; the scheme allows the physician to define a region of interest, whose diagnostic value is explicitly protected throughout the embedding process, since the only additional information inserted therein is for the purpose of integrity control. The rest part of the image casts multiple watermarks conveying the physicians digital signature, patients sensitive data, and keywords allowing image retrieval. In order to increase data robustness, a form of hybrid coding is applied, which includes repetitive embedding of BCH encoded watermarks

Volume estimation of non-geometric shape cavity using an array of normal distributed distance sensors on a spherical mount, applicable in the right ventricle

The aim of this work is to estimate the volume of a random shape cavity using distance sensors which transmit on a surface of a sphere, where sensors are mounted in a normal distribution. It is based on a variant method of convex surface volume measurement using triangulation. The innovation in the present work is that the measurements of distances for triangulation are taken from a random point of the cavity, to the inner wall. This method could be applied in cardiac ventricles; ventricles volume is an important hemodynamic factor for heart failure patients. The necessity for a new method of volume measurement by catheterization is more compulsory in the right ventricle due to its shape singularity than in the case of the left ventricle, whose practicable shape helps in easier volume estimation.

Watermarking SDK implementation to facilitate integration in a secure healthcare environment.

The implementation of digital watermarking technology in healthcare applications is still in its infancy; however, the benefits of exploring this technology towards secure and efficient health data management are steadily propagated and realized by the research community. The paper presents the architecture of a watermarking software development kit (SDK), which provides multiple watermarking functionality and can be customized according to the targeted medical application, in order to address security of sensitive data, origin and data authentication, image archiving and retrieval. Two use cases of the proposed watermarking SDK are presented, the one involving access to the watermarking engine through a user interface, and the other referring to the case that the engine is embedded into the image acquisition device. The nature of the embeddable information that is applicable in each use case is also described

A multilayered architecture for the development of smart card-based healthcare applications

The use of smart cards in healthcare promises to improve both the quality and the availability of healthcare services, providing a convenient and secure medium for storing and communicating medical information. However, the adoption of healthcard implementations within the national healthcare systems and IT strategies is relatively slow, blocked by a number of technical, administrative and medical barriers. This paper addresses the above problem by presenting a reference architecture, which facilitates healthcard applications development, covering all healthcare specific requirements and needs. The proposed architecture enables the development of cost-effective, flexible and interoperable healthcard solutions in Java, that make use of ISO 7816-compliant smart cards on different target platforms such as Windows, network computers and handheld devices.