# DSFedMed: Dual-Scale Federated Medical Image Segmentation via Mutual Distillation Between Foundation and Lightweight Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16073 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.16073/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Federated, robust and private distillation, one of 12 directions in Knowledge distillation.
- Builds on 16 of its 38 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jan 2026.

## Placed in

- Knowledge distillation / [Federated, robust and private distillation](https://mlsanity.com/distill/federated-robust-and-private-distillation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 16 of 16)

- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [Image-to-Image Translation with Conditional Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07004/) (2016)
- [On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07258/) (2021)
- [Federated Learning: Strategies for Improving Communication Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.05492/) (2016)
- [How to train your ViT? Data, Augmentation, and Regularization in Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10270/) (2021)
- [CHAOS Challenge -- Combined (CT-MR) Healthy Abdominal Organ Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.06535/) (2020)
- [nnU-Net: Self-adapting Framework for U-Net-Based Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.10486/) (2018)
- [REFUGE Challenge: A Unified Framework for Evaluating Automated Methods for Glaucoma Assessment from Fundus Photographs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.03667/) (2019)
- [PanNuke Dataset Extension, Insights and Baselines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.10778/) (2020)
- [Federated Learning for Privacy Preservation in Smart Healthcare Systems: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09702/) (2022)
- [Feature Likelihood Divergence: Evaluating the Generalization of Generative Models Using Samples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04440/) (2023)
- [FedRA: A Random Allocation Strategy for Federated Tuning to Unleash the Power of Heterogeneous Clients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.11227/) (2023)
- [FedWSIDD: Federated Whole Slide Image Classification via Dataset Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.15365/) (2025)

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

- [Shift-Dependent Asymmetry: Orthogonal Inverse Low-Rank Adaptation for Federated Medical Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.08687/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Foundation Models (FMs) have demonstrated strong generalization across diverse vision tasks. However, their deployment in federated settings is hindered by high computational demands, substantial communication overhead, and significant inference costs. We propose DSFedMed, a dual-scale federated framework that enables mutual knowledge distillation between a centralized foundation model and lightweight client models for medical image segmentation. To support knowledge distillation, a set of high-quality medical images is generated to replace real public datasets, and a learnability-guided sample selection strategy is proposed to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in dual-scale distillation. This mutual distillation enables the foundation model to transfer general knowledge to lightweight clients, while also incorporating client-specific insights to refine the foundation model. Evaluations on five medical imaging segmentation datasets show that DSFedMed achieves an average 2 percent improvement in Dice score while reducing communication costs and inference time by nearly 90 percent compared to existing federated foundation model baselines. These results demonstrate significant efficiency gains and scalability for resource-limited federated deployments.