# Towards an Effective and Efficient Deep Learning Model for COVID-19 Patterns Detection in X-ray Images

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.05717 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.05717/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Apr 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [COVID-Net CXR-2: An Enhanced Deep Convolutional Neural Network Design for Detection of COVID-19 Cases from Chest X-ray Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.06640/) (2021)
- [Backbones-Review: Feature Extraction Networks for Deep Learning and Deep Reinforcement Learning Approaches](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08016/) (2022)
- [Randomly Initialized Convolutional Neural Network for the Recognition of COVID-19 using X-ray Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.08199/) (2021)
- [Privacy-Preserving Deep Learning Model for Covid-19 Disease Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.04445/) (2022)
- [A Survey of Machine Learning Techniques for Detecting and Diagnosing COVID-19 from Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.04344/) (2021)
- [Classification of COVID-19 from CXR Images in a 15-class Scenario: an Attempt to Avoid Bias in the System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.12453/) (2021)
- [STOPPAGE: Spatio-temporal Data Driven Cloud-Fog-Edge Computing Framework for Pandemic Monitoring and Management](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.01600/) (2021)
- [A Data Augmented Approach to Transfer Learning for Covid-19 Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.02870/) (2021)
- [A Deep Learning Approach for the Detection of COVID-19 from Chest X-Ray Images using Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.09952/) (2022)
- [Designing an Improved Deep Learning-based Model for COVID-19 Recognition in Chest X-ray Images: A Knowledge Distillation Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.02735/) (2023)
- [Empowering Medical Imaging with Artificial Intelligence: A Review of Machine Learning Approaches for the Detection, and Segmentation of COVID-19 Using Radiographic and Tomographic Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07020/) (2024)
- [From Lab to Pocket: A Novel Continual Learning-based Mobile Application for Screening COVID-19](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.12589/) (2024)
- [A Hybrid Deep Learning CNN Model for Enhanced COVID-19 Detection from Computed Tomography (CT) Scan Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.17160/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Confronting the pandemic of COVID-19, is nowadays one of the most prominent challenges of the human species. A key factor in slowing down the virus propagation is the rapid diagnosis and isolation of infected patients. The standard method for COVID-19 identification, the Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method, is time-consuming and in short supply due to the pandemic. Thus, researchers have been looking for alternative screening methods and deep learning applied to chest X-rays of patients has been showing promising results. Despite their success, the computational cost of these methods remains high, which imposes difficulties to their accessibility and availability. Thus, the main goal of this work is to propose an accurate yet efficient method in terms of memory and processing time for the problem of COVID-19 screening in chest X-rays. Methods: To achieve the defined objective we exploit and extend the EfficientNet family of deep artificial neural networks which are known for their high accuracy and low footprints in other applications. We also exploit the underlying taxonomy of the problem with a hierarchical classifier. A dataset of 13,569 X-ray images divided into healthy, non-COVID-19 pneumonia, and COVID-19 patients is used to train the proposed approaches and other 5 competing architectures. Finally, 231 images of the three classes were used to assess the quality of the methods. Results: The results show that the proposed approach was able to produce a high-quality model, with an overall accuracy of 93.9%, COVID-19, sensitivity of 96.8% and positive prediction of 100%, while having from 5 to 30 times fewer parameters than other than the other tested architectures. Larger and more heterogeneous databases are still needed for validation before claiming that deep learning can assist physicians in the task of detecting COVID-19 in X-ray images.