Establishing dermatopathology encyclopedia DermpathNet with Artificial Intelligence-Based Workflow

TL;DR

This paper presents DermpathNet, a large open-access dermatopathology image dataset created using a hybrid AI workflow combining deep learning and caption analysis, validated on thousands of images for educational and machine learning use.

Contribution

The authors developed a novel hybrid curation workflow for dermatopathology images, resulting in a comprehensive, annotated dataset validated with high accuracy, advancing resources for education and AI research.

Findings

Successfully retrieved over 7,700 images across 166 diagnoses

Hybrid workflow achieved an F-score of 90.4% for image classification

Current AI algorithms are inadequate for dermatopathology image analysis

Abstract

Accessing high-quality, open-access dermatopathology image datasets for learning and cross-referencing is a common challenge for clinicians and dermatopathology trainees. To establish a comprehensive open-access dermatopathology dataset for educational, cross-referencing, and machine-learning purposes, we employed a hybrid workflow to curate and categorize images from the PubMed Central (PMC) repository. We used specific keywords to extract relevant images, and classified them using a novel hybrid method that combined deep learning-based image modality classification with figure caption analyses. Validation on 651 manually annotated images demonstrated the robustness of our workflow, with an F-score of 89.6% for the deep learning approach, 61.0% for the keyword-based retrieval method, and 90.4% for the hybrid approach. We retrieved over 7,772 images across 166 diagnoses and released this fully annotated dataset, reviewed by board-certified dermatopathologists. Using our dataset as a challenging task, we found the current image analysis algorithm from OpenAI inadequate for analyzing dermatopathology images. In conclusion, we have developed a large, peer-reviewed, open-access dermatopathology image dataset, DermpathNet, which features a semi-automated curation workflow.