Improving Skin Lesion Diagnosis: A Hybrid Approach Using Orthogonal Combination of Local Binary Pattern Features and Ensemble Learning for Diagnostic Accuracy.

Background: As the world becomes wealthier and people expect higher standards of care, the demand for healthcare services is growing rapidly. This puts significant pressure on existing medical resources and systems, making it harder to meet everyone's needs. In dermatology, for instance, the rising demand calls for creative and efficient solutions, especially in diagnosing conditions like skin cancer. Early diagnosis of skin lesions is necessary not only for effective treatment but also for providing the best possible outcomes for patients. Methods: In this paper, we present a solution using machine learning (ML) to assist in automated skin diagnosis, with a particular focus on the early detection of skin lesions, which is a key factor for effective treatment and better patient outcomes. Our method utilizes a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) with geometric features to enhance image quality by removing artifacts. We then use a color descriptor based on hybrid orthogonal combination of local binary patterns to capture the unique characteristics of the lesions. To identify the most important features for accurate classification, we apply ReliefF feature selection, prioritizing those that contribute most significantly to the results. Finally, we used several ML models such as decision tree, random forest, k-nearest neighbors, multilayer perceptron, and ensemble extra tree (ET) to classify eight different types of skin lesions effectively. Results: Remarkably, ensemble ET achieves superior performance with an accuracy of 97.31%. Conclusions: This research advances early skin lesion diagnosis, enhancing patient care in dermatology.