# Enhanced Chest Disease Classification Using an Improved CheXNet Framework with EfficientNetV2-M and Optimization-Driven Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08992 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.08992/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 29 of its 67 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 8 Dec 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [SGDR: Stochastic Gradient Descent with Warm Restarts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.03983/) (2016)
- [Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.01507/) (2017)
- [A ConvNet for the 2020s](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.03545/) (2022)
- [CheXpert: A Large Chest Radiograph Dataset with Uncertainty Labels and Expert Comparison](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.07031/) (2019)
- [How transferable are features in deep neural networks?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.1792/) (2014)
- [Averaging Weights Leads to Wider Optima and Better Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.05407/) (2018)
- [A Survey on Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.05747/) (2017)
- [Mixed Precision Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.03740/) (2017)
- [EfficientNetV2: Smaller Models and Faster Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00298/) (2021)
- [ChestX-ray8: Hospital-scale Chest X-ray Database and Benchmarks on Weakly-Supervised Classification and Localization of Common Thorax Diseases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.02315/) (2017)
- [Cyclical Learning Rates for Training Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.01186/) (2015)
- [CheXNet: Radiologist-Level Pneumonia Detection on Chest X-Rays with Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.05225/) (2017)
- [Deep Learning for Medical Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.08987/) (2017)
- [Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Computer-Aided Detection: CNN Architectures, Dataset Characteristics and Transfer Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.03409/) (2016)
- [CoroNet: A deep neural network for detection and diagnosis of COVID-19 from chest x-ray images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04931/) (2020)
- [A Comparison of Optimization Algorithms for Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.14166/) (2020)
- [Transfer Learning with Deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for Pneumonia Detection using Chest X-ray](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.06578/) (2020)
- [Empowering COVID-19 Detection: Optimizing Performance Through Fine-Tuned EfficientNet Deep Learning Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16593/) (2023)
- [Pneumonia Detection in Chest X-Ray Images : Handling Class Imbalance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08479/) (2023)
- [A Systematic and Meta-analysis Survey of Whale Optimization Algorithm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.08763/) (2019)
- [A Novel Hybrid GWO with WOA for Global Numerical Optimization and Solving Pressure Vessel Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.11894/) (2020)
- [Reproducing and Improving CheXNet: Deep Learning for Chest X-ray Disease Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.06646/) (2025)
- [Foxtsage vs. Adam: Revolution or Evolution in Optimization?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17855/) (2024)
- [Robust Training with Data Augmentation for Medical Imaging Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17133/) (2025)
- [Innovative Deep Learning Architecture for Enhanced Altered Fingerprint Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.20537/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The interpretation of Chest X-ray is an important diagnostic issue in clinical practice and especially in the resource-limited setting where the shortage of radiologists plays a role in delayed diagnosis and poor patient outcomes. Although the original CheXNet architecture has shown potential in automated analysis of chest radiographs, DenseNet-121 backbone is computationally inefficient and poorly single-label classifier. To eliminate such shortcomings, we suggest a better classification framework of chest disease that relies on EfficientNetV2-M and incorporates superior training approaches such as Automatic Mixed Precision training, AdamW, Cosine Annealing learning rate scheduling, and Exponential Moving Average regularization. We prepared a dataset of 18,080 chest X-ray images of three source materials of high authority and representing five key clinically significant disease categories which included Cardiomegaly, COVID-19, Normal, Pneumonia, and Tuberculosis. To achieve statistical reliability and reproducibility, nine independent experimental runs were run. The suggested architecture showed significant gains with mean test accuracy of 96.45 percent compared to 95.30 percent at baseline (p less than 0.001) and macro-averaged F1-score increased to 91.08 percent (p less than 0.001). Critical infectious diseases showed near-perfect classification performance with COVID-19 detection having 99.95 percent accuracy and Tuberculosis detection having 99.97 percent accuracy. Although 6.8 times more parameters are included, the training time was reduced by 11.4 percent and performance stability was increased by 22.7 percent. This framework presents itself as a decision-support tool that can be used to respond to a pandemic, screen tuberculosis, and assess thoracic disease regularly in various healthcare facilities.