The DOI matches its Crossref record; 102 of the 102 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Explainable medical imaging AI needs human-centered design: guidelines and evidence from a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Transparency in Machine Learning (ML), often also referred to as interpretability or explainability, attempts to reveal the working mechanisms of complex models. From a human-centered design perspective, transparency is not a property of the ML model but an affordance, i.e., a relationship between algorithm and users. Thus, prototyping and user evaluations are critical to attaining solutions that afford transparency. Following human-centered design principles in highly specialized and high stakes domains, such as medical image analysis, is challenging due to the limited access to end users and the knowledge imbalance between those users and ML designers. To investigate the state of transparent ML in medical image analysis, we conducted a systematic review of the literature from 2012 to 2021 in PubMed, EMBASE, and Compendex databases. We identified 2508 records and 68 articles met the inclusion criteria. Current techniques in transparent ML are dominated by computational feasibility and barely consider end users, e.g. clinical stakeholders. Despite the different roles and knowledge of ML developers and end users, no study reported formative user research to inform the design and development of transparent ML models. Only a few studies validated transparency claims through empirical user evaluations. These shortcomings put contemporary research on transparent ML at risk of being incomprehensible to users, and thus, clinically irrelevant. To alleviate these shortcomings in forthcoming research, we introduce the INTRPRT guideline, a design directive for transparent ML systems in medical image analysis. The INTRPRT guideline suggests human-centered design principles, recommending formative user research as the first step to understand user needs and domain requirements. Following these guidelines increases the likelihood that the algorithms afford transparency and enable stakeholders to capitalize on the benefits of transparent ML.
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“Moreover, computational evaluation methods lack the capacity to assess human usability and interaction [21–23], which plays a vital role in gaining trust, acceptance, and eventual adoption of AI-enabled tools in clinical practice.”
From Evaluating Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) techniques in chest radiology imaging through a human-centered Lens (2024) · cites this paper as [23]
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“This gap is partly a result of explanation design being driven primarily by XAI method availability rather than user requirements [121].”
From Explainable and Interpretable AI for Voice and Speech Analysis in Clinical Care: Systematic Review (2026) · cites this paper as [121]
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“By raising awareness of the user- and context-dependent nature of transparency, designers should consider a trade-off between efforts to (1) better ground their approaches on user needs and domain requirements and (2) commit to technological development and validation of possibly transparent systems.”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Chen, H., Gomez, C., Huang, C.-M., & Unberath, M.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Unberath, Mathias
- Venue
- npj Digital Medicine
- Published
- 2022-10-19
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 156-156
- ISSN
- 2398-6352 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9581990
- OpenAlex
- W4306790271
- Cited by
- 300
- References
- 101
- Citations by year
- 2026: 97 · 2025: 94 · 2024: 67 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 3.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- npj Digital Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
- Keywords
- explainable AI, machine learning transparency, human-centered design, medical image analysis, user-centered design, user evaluation
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