Medical Image Segmentation

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Overview

Medical image segmentation assigns labels to pixels or voxels to outline structures such as tumors, organs, vessels, and surgical instruments, enabling quantitative analysis and clinical workflows. Common approaches include U-Net-style convolutional networks, transformers and state-space models, and promptable foundation models; work also uses anatomical and topological priors, text guidance, and generative models. To reduce reliance on dense expert labels, researchers study self-supervised pretraining, semi- and weakly supervised learning, synthetic data, and interactive annotation, while domain adaptation addresses differences across scanners, hospitals, and modalities. A central challenge is making models reliable beyond their training data: high overlap scores can conceal boundary, connectivity, small-lesion, or subgroup failures, so external validation, uncertainty estimates, and clinically relevant metrics remain important.

Latest papers

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788 papers62 papers in the last four weeks, down 29% on the four weeks before. 0.4% of all new papers.

  1. GLI-AL: A Multi-Modal Glioma MRI Label Resource with Unified Anatomy-Lesion Labels

    Jul 24, 2026Xingyu Xiang, Shuang Hao, Fan Wang +2Medical Image SegmentationLearning with Noisy Labels

    School of Mathematics and Statistics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China · Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China · Research Center for Intelligent Medical Equipment and Devices (IMED), Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

  2. A Smooth Phase-Separation Model for Weak-Boundary Segmentation of Homogeneous Structures

    Jul 24, 2026Zihan Li, Jiebao Sun, Fanghui Song +1Image SegmentationMedical Image Segmentation

    School of Mathematics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

  3. Risk-Routed Implicit Boundary Refinement for Robust Ultrasound Image Segmentation

    Jul 23, 2026Jingguo Qu, Xinyang Han, Xiang Wang +8Ultrasound Image SegmentationImplicit Neural Representations

    Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China · Centre for Smart Health and School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China · Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

  4. ASTRA-Net: Anatomy-Specific Transfer and Representation Alignment for Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy Segmentation

    Jul 23, 2026Suhua Sun, Yuqiao Wang, Sheng Liu +6Cross-Modality Medical Image SegmentationEndoscopy

    Department of Otolaryngology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China · Institute of Medical Technology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China · National Biomedical Imaging Center, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China

  5. FSB-Net: Frequency-Spatial Boundary Network for Brain Stroke Lesion Segmentation in Non-Contrast CT

    Jul 23, 2026Linke Fan, Xianglong Li, Huixin Huang +1Image SegmentationMedical Image Segmentation

    Tongji University · Shanghai, China · University of Malaya +5

  6. QFedPolyp: A Communication- and Inference-Efficient Federated Learning Framework for Polyp Segmentation

    Jul 23, 2026Madan Baduwal, Priyanka PaudelPolyp SegmentationMedical Image Segmentation

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS, USA

  7. StrokeSeg2: Stroke Lesion Segmentation in Clinical Research Workflows

    Jul 22, 2026Youwan Mahé, Axel Plessis, Stéphanie Leplaideur +3Efficient Neural Network InferenceMedical Image Segmentation

    EMPENN, MALT · Univ Rennes, Inria, CNRS, Inserm, IRISA UMR 6074, Empenn, Rennes, France · Siemens Healthineers, Courbevoie, France +6

  8. Robust Activation Map Rectification for Weakly Supervised Volumetric Segmentation: Temporal Coherence as a Free Lunch

    Jul 22, 2026Renshu Gu, Jialiang Chen, Fei Gao +8Weakly Supervised Image SegmentationWeakly Supervised Semantic Segmentation

    School of Computer Science, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China · Hangzhou Institute of Technology, Xidian University, Hangzhou 311231, China · University of Yamanashi +3

  9. Trustworthy Medical Segmentation: Uncertainty-Aware U-Net Evaluation Under Clinical Image Degradation

    Jul 22, 2026Pranav Kaliaperumal, Manisha KaliaperumalImage Corruption RobustnessU-Net

    Department of Computer Science University of Colorado Denver Aurora, CO, USA · Department of Biology (Pre-Medical) Creighton University Omaha, NE, USA

  10. Anatomy-Aware 3D Mesh Refinement of Pericardium Segmentations on Computed Tomography

    Jul 21, 2026Andreas W. Aspe, Jonas Jalili Loft, Michael Huy Cuong Pham +6Medical Image Segmentation3D Medical Image Segmentation

    DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark · Department of Cardiology, The Heart Center, Copenhagen University Hospital – Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark · Department of Radiology, The Diagnostic Center, Copenhagen University Hospital – Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark +2

  11. PC-Seg: Progressive Cross-View Consistency for 3D OCT Segmentation from Sparse 2D Annotations

    Jul 20, 2026Tsubasa Konno, Takahiro Ninomiya, Yukun Zhou +6Multi-View ConsistencyOptical Coherence Tomography

    Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, Japan · Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University · Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, UK +3

  12. Memory-Supported Synergistic Adaptation for Training-Free Test-Time Medical Image Segmentation

    Jul 20, 2026Lingrui Li, Nan Pu, Dong Zhao +4Memory-Augmented VLMsVLM Adaptation

    School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, UK · School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, China · Information Systems Technology and Design Pillar, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore

  13. Understanding From Human Perspective: A Multi-agent System for Interactive Egocentric Medical Image Segmentation

    Jul 19, 2026Rongjun Ge, Dongyang Wang, Heng Zhu +3Interactive Medical Image SegmentationReferring Video Object Segmentation

    School of Instrument Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China · School of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China · Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China +1

  14. MIS-HCC: Hierarchical Channel Clustering for Efficient Medical Image Segmentation

    Jul 19, 2026Bo Zhao, Haoran Yu, Lifei Liu +5Model CompressionClustering

    Yale University · University of Florida · Wichita State University +5

  15. Induce to Empower: Improving Lightweight Baselines via Foundation Model Induction for Generalized Polyp Segmentation

    Jul 19, 2026Shivanshu Agnihotri, Snehashis Majhi, Deepak Ranjan Nayak +2Medical Imaging Foundation ModelsDomain Generalization

    Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, India · Côte d’Azur University, France · Khalifa University, UAE +1

  16. Automated Cardiac Adipose Tissue Segmentation in Computed Tomography: A Literature Review

    Jul 18, 2026Andreas W. Aspe, Jonas Jalili Pedersen, Andreas Ohrt Johansen +4Medical Image SegmentationComputed Tomography

    DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark · Heart Centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, Denmark · Novo Nordisk A/S, Søborg, Denmark

  17. Spatial Normalization for Cross-Domain Retinal Layer Segmentation in Optical Coherence Tomography

    Jul 17, 2026Iker Moran-Cavero, Monica Hernandez, Elvira Mayordomo +4Medical ImagingOptical Coherence Tomography

  18. Benchmarking MRI Representations for Deep Learning-Based Focal Cortical Dysplasia Segmentation

    Jul 17, 2026Soumen Ghosh, John Phamnguyen, Amit Soni Arya +3Medical Image SegmentationMedical Image Representation Learning

    The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia · I-MED Radiology, Brisbane, Australia · Mater Hospital, Brisbane, Australia +4

  19. Stitch-Inferencer: Enhance Endoscopic Video Segmentation and Tracking via Panoramic Reconstruction

    Jul 16, 2026Shunsuke Kikuchi, Atsushi Kouno, Hiroki MatsuzakiVisual Object TrackingMedical Image Segmentation

    Jmees Inc, Kashiwa-city, Chiba, Japan

  20. Beyond scalar losses: calibrating segmentation models via gradient vector field surgery

    Jul 15, 2026Laurin Lux, Alexander H. Berger, Moritz Knolle +2Model CalibrationMedical Image Segmentation

    School of Computation, Information and Technology, TUM, Munich, Germany · Munich Center for Machine Learning, Munich, Germany · Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, USA +3

  21. ViPSAM: Visual Prompting Medical Image Segmentation Using Segment Anything Model

    Jul 15, 2026San Lee, Nalee Kim, Jeong Il Yu +2Cross-Modality Medical Image SegmentationPromptable Image Segmentation

    Department of Artificial Intelligence, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea · Department of Radiation Oncology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Republic of Korea · Department of MetaBioHealth, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea

  22. OvAi Focus: AI-based Multi-class Segmentation of Functional Ovaries and Adnexal Masses in Gynecological Ultrasound

    Jul 15, 2026Niccolò Tallone, Francesca Salis, Pio Raffaele Fina +13Ultrasound Image SegmentationMedical Image Segmentation

    SynDiag s.r.l., Turin, Italy · Academic Division of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University of Turin, Azienda Ospedaliera Ordine Mauriziano, Turin, Italy · University of Turin +5

  23. SARFA: Segment Anything with Radiomic Feature Alignment

    Jul 14, 2026Tyler Ward, Abdullah ImranPromptable Image SegmentationMedical Image Segmentation

    Computer Science Department University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

  24. Active Learning for Efficient Annotation of Surgical Videos with Weak Supervision

    Jul 14, 2026Manasa Dendukuri, Matjaz Jogan, Daniel A. Hashimoto +1Video Object SegmentationHuman-in-the-Loop Annotation

    1*GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA. · 2PCASO Laboratory, Dept. of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA. · 3Dept. of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, 3330 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.

  25. UniMedSeg: Unified In-Context Learning for Multi-Paradigm 2D/3D Medical Image Segmentation

    Jul 14, 2026Yunzhou Li, Jiesi Hu, Yanwu Yang +5Interactive Medical Image SegmentationMedical Imaging Foundation Models

    Harbin Institute of Technology at Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China · Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China · University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany +2

  26. Lesion Segmentation in Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: An nnU-Net Based Approach with Adaptive Normalization in the AIMS-TBI 2025 Challenge

    Jul 14, 2026Inhwa Son, Gaeun Lee, Sohyeon Sim +1Medical Image SegmentationConvolutional Neural Networks

    Gachon University, Republic of Korea · MEDAI, Republic of Korea

  27. Medical Image Segmentation based on Deep Active Contour and Mean Curvature Loss Function

    Jul 14, 2026Xiao-qiang Zhai, Zhi-feng Pang, Peng Zheng +2Medical Image Segmentation

    Henan Provincial Center for Applied Mathematics, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China · College of Mathematics and Statistics, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China · Advanced Institute of Finance, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China +1

  28. A Unified Framework for Comprehensive Cardiac CT Segmentation and Phenotyping: Human-in-the-Loop Data Annotation, Vision Foundation Model Development, Multicenter Evaluation and Clinical Validation

    Jul 13, 2026Pooya Mohammadi Kazaj, Leo Fridolin Weber, Wen Xie +17Medical Imaging Foundation ModelsMedical Image Segmentation

    Department of Cardiology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland · Department of Digital Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland · Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland +4

  29. Toward Efficient Weakly Supervised Semantic Segmentation Using Only Low-Magnification Histopathological Images

    Jul 12, 2026Dung Minh Do, Nhat-Thanh Huynh, Duc Minh Huynh +2Weakly Supervised Image SegmentationHistopathology Image Segmentation

    University of Information Technology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam · Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

  30. BAT-RM: A Boundary-Aware Transformer with Region-Aware Multi-Directional Mamba for Clinically Deployed Cervical Cancer Radiotherapy Auto-Contouring

    Jul 11, 2026Istiak Ahmed, Kazi Shahriar Sanjid, Galib Ahmed +16Visual SSMsMedical Image Segmentation

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North South University, Dhaka, 1229, Bangladesh · Big-Matrix Lab, Department of Mathematics and Physics, North South University, Dhaka, 1229, Bangladesh · Department of Data Science, Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University, 91054, Germany +8