Explainable Medical Image Analysis

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Overview

This field studies how AI systems analyze medical images and how clinicians can inspect the evidence behind predictions, segmentations, and reports. Approaches include post-hoc saliency and perturbation methods, prototypes and concept bottlenecks, interpretable radiomic features, counterfactuals, and vision-language systems that link findings to clinical concepts or anatomical regions. Methods are tested across tasks such as chest X-ray diagnosis, retinal grading, tumor segmentation, and whole-slide pathology, with growing attention to external-site generalization and clinician assessment. A central challenge is that attractive explanations may not faithfully reflect what drives a model, while explanation stability, clinical usefulness, and predictive performance can vary across architectures, methods, and datasets.

Latest papers

CardsList

256 papers23 papers in the last four weeks, up 10% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Topology-Guided Biomechanical Profiling: A White-Box Framework for Opportunistic Screening of Spinal Instability on Routine CT

    Mar 17, 2026Zanting Ye, Xuanbin Wu, Guoqing Zhong +9Explainable Medical Image Analysis

    Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China · Westlake University, Hangzhou, China · The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China +5

  2. Histo-MExNet: A Unified Framework for Real-World, Cross-Magnification, and Trustworthy Breast Cancer Histopathology

    Mar 15, 2026Enam Ahmed Taufika, Md Ahasanul Arafatha, Abhijit Kumar Ghoshb +2Histopathology Image ClassificationExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    European University of Bangladesh, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Dhaka, Bangladesh · BRAC University, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Dhaka, Bangladesh · Ochsner Center for Outcomes Research, Ochsner Research, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, LA, 70121, USA

  3. EviAgent: Evidence-Driven Agent for Radiology Report Generation

    Mar 14, 2026Tuoshi Qi, Shenshen Bu, Yingfei Xiang +1Radiology Report GenerationMedical VLMs

    School of Computer Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University · Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences · Sangfor Technologies, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

  4. Automated Detection of Malignant Lesions in the Ovary Using Deep Learning Models and XAI

    Mar 12, 2026Md. Hasin Sarwar Ifty, Nisharga Nirjan, Labib Islam +4Histopathology Image ClassificationComputational Pathology

    Dept. of Computer Science and Engr. BRAC University Dhaka, Bangladesh

  5. DeepHistoViT: An Interpretable Vision Transformer Framework for Histopathological Cancer Classification

    Mar 12, 2026Ravi Mosalpuri, Mohammed Abdelsamea, Ahmed Karam EldalyHistopathology Image ClassificationComputational Pathology

  6. UltrasoundAgents: Hierarchical Multi-Agent Evidence-Chain Reasoning for Breast Ultrasound Diagnosis

    Mar 11, 2026Yali Zhu, Kang Zhou, Dingbang Wu +1Explainable Medical Image AnalysisMedical Image Classification

    Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China · School of Advanced Interdisciplinary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China · Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Hong Kong Institute of Science & Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hong Kong

  7. Vision-Language Models Encode Clinical Guidelines for Concept-Based Medical Reasoning

    Mar 9, 2026Mohamed Harmanani, Bining Long, Zhuoxin Guo +6Explainable Medical Image AnalysisMedical Reasoning

    Queen’s University · Vector Institute · McMaster University +1

  8. Interpretable Aneurysm Classification via 3D Concept Bottleneck Models: Integrating Morphological and Hemodynamic Clinical Features

    Mar 8, 2026Toqa Khaled, Ahmad Al-KabbanyExplainable Medical Image AnalysisMedical Image Classification

    Biomedical Sciences Program, School of Sciences, Zewail City of Science and Technology · Multimedia Interaction and Communication Lab, Arab Academy for Science and Technology · Multimedia Interaction and Communication Lab, Wearables, Biosensing, and Biosignal Processing Research lab, Arab Academy for Science and Technology

  9. Class Visualizations and Activation Atlases for Enhancing Interpretability in Deep Learning-Based Computational Pathology

    Mar 7, 2026Marco Gustav, Fabian Wolf, Christina Glasner +6Feature VisualizationExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    Else Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health, Faculty of Medicine, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany · Institute of Pathology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany · Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany +4

  10. Vessel-Aware Deep Learning for OCTA-Based Detection of AMD

    Mar 6, 2026Margalit G. Mitzner, Moinak Bhattacharya, Zhilin Zou +2Medical Image AnalysisExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

  11. Interpretable Motion Artificat Detection in structural Brain MRI

    Mar 5, 2026Naveetha Nithianandam, Prabhjot Kaur, Anil Kumar SaoImage Quality AssessmentBrain MRI

    Indian Institute of Technology, Madras · Boston Childrens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA · Indian Institute of Technology, Bhilai

  12. Adaptive Prototype-based Interpretable Grading of Prostate Cancer

    Mar 5, 2026Riddhasree Bhattacharyya, Pallabi Dutta, Sushmita MitraProstate Cancer GradingHistopathology Image Classification

    Machine Intelligence Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata 700108

  13. Missingness Bias Calibration in Feature Attribution Explanations

    Mar 5, 2026Shailesh Sridhar, Anton Xue, Eric WongFeature AttributionPerturbation-Based Feature Attribution

    University of Pennsylvania · University of Texas at Austin

  14. CRESTomics: Analyzing Carotid Plaques in the CREST-2 Trial with a New Additive Classification Model

    Mar 4, 2026Pranav Kulkarni, Brajesh K. Lal, Georges Jreij +11Medical Image ClassificationExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing · University of Maryland, College Park · University of Maryland School of Medicine +3

  15. Beyond Anatomy: Explainable ASD Classification from rs-fMRI via Functional Parcellation and Graph Attention Networks

    Mar 3, 2026Syeda Hareem Madani, Noureen Bibi, Adam Rafiq Jeraj +3Autism Spectrum DisorderNeuroimaging

    Salim Habib University · VentureDive · National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences

  16. Retrieving Patient-Specific Radiomic Feature Sets for Transparent Knee MRI Assessment

    Mar 2, 2026Yaxi Chen, Simin Ni, Jingjing Zhang +7RadiomicsExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    Mechanical Engineering Department, University College London, London, UK · Hawkes Institute, University College London, London, UK · Institute of Orthopaedic & Musculoskeletal Science, University College London, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, UK +4

  17. Explainable Continuous-Time Mask Refinement with Local Self-Similarity Priors for Medical Image Segmentation

    Feb 28, 2026Rajdeep Chatterjee, Sudip Chakrabarty, Trishaani AcharjeeMedical Image SegmentationBoundary-Aware Segmentation

    School of Computer Engineering, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, India · AmygdalaAI-India Lab, Bhubaneswar, India

  18. An Interpretable Local Editing Model for Counterfactual Medical Image Generation

    Feb 28, 2026Hyungi Min, Taeseung You, Hangyeul Lee +2Image EditingMedical Image Synthesis

  19. Unsupervised Causal Prototypical Networks for De-biased Interpretable Dermoscopy Diagnosis

    Feb 27, 2026Junhao Jia, Yueyi Wu, Huangwei Chen +4Explainable Medical Image AnalysisSkin Lesion Classification

    Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Accessible Perception and Intelligent Systems, College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University · Hangzhou Dianzi University · Xi’an Jiaotong University

  20. GazeXPErT: An Expert Eye-tracking Dataset for Interpretable and Explainable AI in Oncologic FDG-PET/CT Scans

    Feb 26, 2026Joy T Wu, Daniel Beckmann, Sarah Miller +15Explainable Medical Image AnalysisMedical Image Benchmarks

    Stanford University/Stanford Health Care, Radiology Department, Stanford, CA 94305, USA · University of Münster, Computer Vision and Machine Learning Systems, Heisenbergstraße 2, Münster 48149, Germany · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, School of Information Sciences, Champaign, IL 61820, USA +1

  21. SFL-Net: Source-Factorized Latent Representation Learning for Multi-Contrast MRI to Tau-PET Synthesis

    Feb 26, 2026Agamdeep S. Chopra, Caitlin Neher, Tianyi Ren +3Disentangled Representation LearningMultimodal Disentangled Representation Learning

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA · Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

  22. Following the Diagnostic Trace: Visual Cognition-guided Cooperative Network for Chest X-Ray Diagnosis

    Feb 25, 2026Shaoxuan Wu, Jingkun Chen, Chong Ma +3Medical Image AnalysisChest X-Ray Classification

    College of Computer Science, Northwest University, Xi’an, China, 710127 · Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7DQ, United Kingdom · School of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China +1

  23. XMorph: Explainable Brain Tumor Analysis Via LLM-Assisted Hybrid Deep Intelligence

    Feb 24, 2026Sepehr Salem Ghahfarokhi, M. Moein Esfahani, Raj Sunderraman +2Brain Tumor ClassificationExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA · TReNDS Center, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

  24. Leveraging Causal Reasoning Method for Explaining Medical Image Segmentation Models

    Feb 24, 2026Limai Jiang, Ruitao Xie, Bokai Yang +6Explainable Medical Image AnalysisMedical Image Segmentation

    Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences · University of Chinese Academy of Sciences · Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology +3

  25. RetinaVision: XAI-Driven Augmented Regulation for Precise Retinal Disease Classification using deep learning framework

    Feb 22, 2026Mohammad Tahmid Noor, Shayan Abrar, Jannatul Adan Mahi +3Retinal Disease ClassificationMedical Image Classification

    Dept. of CSE East West University Dhaka, Bangladesh · Dept. of CSE American International University-Bangladesh Dhaka, Bangladesh · Dept. of ICT Bangladesh Army University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka, Bangladesh

  26. EMAD: Evidence-Centric Grounded Multimodal Diagnosis for Alzheimer's Disease

    Feb 22, 2026Qiuhui Chen, Xuancheng Yao, Zhenglei Zhou +2Medical VLMsExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    East China University of Science and Technology · Shanghai Jiao Tong University · Tencent

  27. Similarity-as-Evidence: Calibrating Overconfident VLMs for Interpretable and Label-Efficient Medical Active Learning

    Feb 21, 2026Zhuofan Xie, Zishan Lin, Jinliang Lin +3Active LearningVLM Calibration

    School of Electronic Technology and Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China · School of Informatics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China · School of Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA

  28. RamanSeg: Interpretability-driven Deep Learning on Raman Spectra for Cancer Diagnosis

    Feb 20, 2026Chris Tomy, Mo Vali, David Pertzborn +9Image SegmentationMedical Diagnosis

    Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK · Department of Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK · Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany +2

  29. BTReport: A Framework for Brain Tumor Radiology Report Generation with Clinically Relevant Features

    Feb 17, 2026Juampablo E. Heras Rivera, Dickson T. Chen, Tianyi Ren +4Radiology Report GenerationText Generation

    University of Washington · University of Washington School of Medicine · Microsoft Health AI +1

  30. MacNet: An End-to-End Manifold-Constrained Adaptive Clustering Network for Interpretable Whole Slide Image Classification

    Feb 16, 2026Mingrui Ma, Chentao Li, Pan Huang +1Histopathology Image ClassificationExplainable Medical Image Analysis

    School of Computer Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China · Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Xinjiang 830011, China · Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA +1