Advanced Encryption Strategies for Protecting Patient Data in IoMT Applications

Securing medical images in the field of medical imaging presents a significant challenge, particularly in ensuring confidentiality and preventing data loss. Extensive research has focused on developing robust image security techniques, with encryption emerging as a prominent solution. However, conventional encryption methods face limitations when applied to e-health data due to factors such as large data sizes, redundancy, and constrained capacity—challenges that become critical when transmitting patient data over open channels. In response to these threats, various image encryption techniques have been proposed. A typical approach involves embedding patient data (such as name and ID) into medical images using Least Significant Bit (LSB) steganography. Following this, the image undergoes encryption using advanced cryptographic algorithms to safeguard the hidden data. The proposed method improves upon traditional techniques by achieving higher security with enhanced performance metrics. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this method with NPCR (Number of Pixels Change Rate) values of 99.1892% and 99.6155%, and UACI (Unified Average Changing Intensity) values of 13.001 and 13.1472, indicating a significant increase in security and data integrity. Despite these advancements, current methods continue to encounter application-specific security challenges, highlighting the need for further innovation in this domain.