LitefusionNet: Boosting the performance for medical image classification with an intelligent and lightweight feature fusion network

Medical image analysis plays a crucial role in modern healthcare for accurate diagnosis and treatment. However, the inherent challenges and limitations posed by the complexity and variability of medical images, coupled with the shortcomings of existing methods, necessitate the development of novel approaches. In this study, we propose LiteFusionNet (Lightweight Fusion Network), a lightweight model that effectively addresses these challenges, offering the advantage of accurate and efficient medical image classification while mitigating the computational demands. The LitefusionNet leverages the power of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) and feature fusion techniques to achieve improved performance in medical image classification. LitefusionNet combines the strengths of MobileNet and MobileNetV2 architectures to extract robust features from medical images. These features capture discriminative information from different levels of abstraction, enhancing the model's ability to capture fine-grained patterns. The fusion process employs a concatenation method to combine the extracted features, resulting in a more comprehensive representation that improves the model's classification accuracy. To evaluate the effectiveness of LitefusionNet, extensive experiments are conducted on a diverse set of publicly available medical image datasets, including brain MRI, skin, CT, X-ray, and histology. The results demonstrate that LitefusionNet outperforms several existing models in terms of classification accuracy, showcasing its efficacy in different medical imaging modalities. Furthermore, we provide interpretability to the model's predictions by performing Grad-CAM analysis, enabling insights into the important regions in the medical images that contribute to the classification decision. In addition, we compare LitefusionNet with five pre-trained models. LiteFusionNet excels in medical image classification, boasting impressive accuracies across diverse datasets: 97.33% for brain MRI, 91.11% for skin, 99.00% for CT, 98.15% for X-ray, and 92.11% for histology. These results underscore LiteFusionNet's robust and versatile performance, making it a compelling solution for accurate and efficient medical image analysis. Overall, LitefusionNet strikes a balance between accuracy, efficiency, and real-time performance. Our findings demonstrate its potential as a promising solution for accurate and efficient medical image analysis, with applications in diagnostic support systems and clinical decision-making.