# EYE-DEX: Eye Disease Detection and EXplanation System

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24136 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.24136/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 3 of its 18 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Grad-CAM: Visual Explanations from Deep Networks via Gradient-based Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02391/) (2016)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [DeepGI: Explainable Deep Learning for Gastrointestinal Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.21959/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Retinal disease diagnosis is critical in preventing vision loss and reducing socioeconomic burdens. Globally, over 2.2 billion people are affected by some form of vision impairment, resulting in annual productivity losses estimated at 411 billion. Traditional manual grading of retinal fundus images by ophthalmologists is time-consuming and subjective. In contrast, deep learning has revolutionized medical diagnostics by automating retinal image analysis and achieving expert-level performance. In this study, we present EYE-DEX, an automated framework for classifying 10 retinal conditions using the large-scale Retinal Disease Dataset comprising 21,577 eye fundus images. We benchmark three pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models--VGG16, VGG19, and ResNet50--with our finetuned VGG16 achieving a state-of-the-art global benchmark test accuracy of 92.36%. To enhance transparency and explainability, we integrate the Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) technique to generate visual explanations highlighting disease-specific regions, thereby fostering clinician trust and reliability in AI-assisted diagnostics.