# MORPHFED: Federated Learning for Cross-institutional Blood Morphology Analysis

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04121 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.04121/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 17 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [Federated Optimization in Heterogeneous Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.06127/) (2018)
- [Federated Learning with Non-IID Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.00582/) (2018)
- [Focal Loss for Dense Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.02002/) (2017)
- [Byzantine-Robust Distributed Learning: Towards Optimal Statistical Rates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.01498/) (2018)
- [The Future of Digital Health with Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08119/) (2020)
- [Flower: A Friendly Federated Learning Research Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.14390/) (2020)
- [Federated Learning for Medical Image Analysis: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05980/) (2023)
- [Federated Learning for Large Models in Medical Imaging: A Comprehensive Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.20414/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Automated blood morphology analysis can support hematological diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) but remains sensitive to dataset shifts from staining variability, imaging differences, and rare morphologies. Building centralized datasets to capture this diversity is often infeasible due to privacy regulations and data-sharing restrictions. We introduce a federated learning framework for white blood cell morphology analysis that enables collaborative training across institutions without exchanging training data. Using blood films from multiple clinical sites, our federated models learn robust, domain-invariant representations while preserving complete data privacy. Evaluations across convolutional and transformer-based architectures show that federated training achieves strong cross-site performance and improved generalization to unseen institutions compared to centralized training. These findings highlight federated learning as a practical and privacy-preserving approach for developing equitable, scalable, and generalizable medical imaging AI in resource-limited healthcare environments.