Deep Learning in Skin Disease Image Recognition: A Review

The application of deep learning methods to diagnose diseases has become a new research topic in the medical field. In the field of medicine, skin disease is one of the most common diseases, and its visual representation is more prominent compared with the other types of diseases. Accordingly, the use of deep learning methods for skin disease image recognition is of great significance and has attracted the attention of researchers. In this study, we review 45 research efforts on the identification of skin disease by using deep learning technology since 2016. We analyze these studies from the aspects of disease type, data set, data processing technology, data augmentation technology, model for skin disease image recognition, deep learning framework, evaluation indicators, and model performance. Moreover, we summarize the traditional and machine learning-based skin disease diagnosis and treatment methods. We also analyze the current progress in this field and predict four directions that may become the research topic in the future. Our results show that the skin disease image recognition method based on deep learning is better than those of dermatologists and other computer-aided treatment methods in skin disease diagnosis, especially the multi deep learning model fusion method has the best recognition effect.