Cited by 1,044COVID-19 diagnosis using AIArtificial Intelligence in Healthcare and EducationRadiomics and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging

Common pitfalls and recommendations for using machine learning to detect and prognosticate for COVID-19 using chest radiographs and CT scans

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Roberts, Michael, Driggs, Derek, Thorpe, Matthew, Gilbey, Julian, Yeung, Michael, Ursprung, Stephan, Aviles-Rivero, Angelica I., Etmann, Christian +46 more·2021·Nature Machine Intelligence

Abstract

Abstract Machine learning methods offer great promise for fast and accurate detection and prognostication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from standard-of-care chest radiographs (CXR) and chest computed tomography (CT) images. Many articles have been published in 2020 describing new machine learning-based models for both of these tasks, but it is unclear which are of potential clinical utility. In this systematic review, we consider all published papers and preprints, for the period from 1 January 2020 to 3 October 2020, which describe new machine learning models for the diagnosis or prognosis of COVID-19 from CXR or CT images. All manuscripts uploaded to bioRxiv, medRxiv and arXiv along with all entries in EMBASE and MEDLINE in this timeframe are considered. Our search identified 2,212 studies, of which 415 were included after initial screening and, after quality screening, 62 studies were included in this systematic review. Our review finds that none of the models identified are of potential clinical use due to methodological flaws and/or underlying biases. This is a major weakness, given the urgency with which validated COVID-19 models are needed. To address this, we give many recommendations which, if followed, will solve these issues and lead to higher-quality model development and well-documented manuscripts.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s42256-021-00307-0

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98 of 98 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Much of the current evidence is based on retrospective analyses with limited prospective validation.

    “Much of the current evidence is based on retrospective analyses with limited prospective validation [19,28].”

    From Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Decision-Making: A Comprehensive Review of Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Therapeutic Applications, Validation Gaps, Bias, and Deployment Challenges (2026) · cites this paper as [28]

    The Data analysis section reports that 48 of 62 reviewed papers used internal validation only. The section on traditional machine learning papers says none of those 25 papers performed a prospective validation study. This supports limited prospective validation, but the copy does not establish that most of the reviewed evidence came from retrospective analyses. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The success of deep learning in computer vision analysis has significantly advanced its clinical applications in comprehending biomedical images, including CT scans, PET-CT scans, whole-slide images, and MRI scans.

    “The success of deep learning in computer vision (CV) analysis has significantly advanced its clinical applications in comprehending biomedical images, including CT scans [88], positron emission tomography (PET)-CT scans [89], whole-slide images (WSIs) [90], and MRI scans [91].”

    From Challenges in AI-driven Biomedical Multimodal Data Fusion and Analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [88]

    The section “Diagnostic models using CT scans and deep learning” reports 18 studies applying deep learning to CT images for COVID-19 classification, supporting the CT example attached to this citation. But the Introduction describes clinical use as promising and says none of the reviewed AI algorithms were ready for clinical deployment; it does not support the claim of significantly advanced clinical applications. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Based on this study, the authors suggest that a gold rush to purchasing AI tools in hospitals with fewer resources and lower standards of care may give rise to un-engaged 'augmentation' which is highly risky from a learning and knowledge perspective for experts, AI companies, and consumers.

    “Based on this study, we suggest that such a gold rush may give rise to un-engaged 'augmentation' which is highly risky from a learning and knowledge perspective for experts, AI companies, and consumers.”
  • The fact that ML systems process and analyze data differently from human beings can be a great benefit to science and society because these systems may identify useful and innovative structures, properties, patterns, and relationships that human beings would not recognize.

    “Despite problems like the one discovered by Roberts et al. [195], the fact that ML systems process and analyze data differently from human beings can be a great benefit to science and society because these systems may be able to identify useful and innovative structures, properties, patterns, and relationships that human beings would not recognize.”
  • Differences in image acquisition and processing may result in 'shortcuts' where models take cues from non-clinical features.

    “Differences in image acquisition and processing may result in “shortcuts” where models take cues from non-clinical features.”

    From AI pitfalls and what not to do: mitigating bias in AI (2023) · cites this paper as [15]

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Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. Wong, H. Y. F. et al. Frequency and distribution of chest radiographic findings in COVID-19 positive patients. Radiology 296, 201160 (2019).
  2. Bassi, P. R. A. S. & Attux, R. A deep convolutional neural network for COVID-19 detection using chest X-rays. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/ abs/2005.01578 (2020). · arXiv
  3. Li, X., Li, C. & Zhu, D. COVID-MobileXpert: on-device COVID-19 screening using snapshots of chest X-ray. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/ abs/2004.03042 (2020). · arXiv
  4. Goodfellow, I. J. et al. Generative adversarial nets. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems Vol. 2 2672-2680 (MIT Press, 2014).
  5. Shi, F. et al. Large-scale screening of COVID-19 from community acquired pneumonia using infection size-aware classification. Preprint at http://arxiv. org/abs/2003.09860 (2020).
  6. Amyar, A., Modzelewski, R., Li, H. & Ruan, S. Multi-task deep learning based CT imaging analysis for COVID-19 pneumonia: classification and segmentation. Comput. Biol. Med. 126, 104037 (2020).
  7. Aviles-Rivero, A. I., Sellars, P., Schönlieb, C.-B. & Papadakis, N. GraphXCOVID: explainable deep graph diffusion pseudo-labelling for identifying COVID-19 on chest X-rays. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/ abs/2010.00378 (2020). · arXiv

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Authors
Roberts, M., Driggs, D., Thorpe, M., Gilbey, J., Yeung, M., Ursprung, S., Aviles-Rivero, A. I., Etmann, C., McCague, C., Beer, L., Weir-McCall, J. R., Teng, Z., Gkrania-Klotsas, E., AIX-COVNET, Ruggiero, A., Korhonen, A., Jefferson, E., Ako, E., Langs, G., Gozaliasl, G., Yang, G., Prosch, H., Preller, J., Stanczuk, J., Tang, J., Hofmanninger, J., Babar, J., Sánchez, L. E., Thillai, M., Gonzalez, P. M., Teare, P., Zhu, X., Patel, M., Cafolla, C., Azadbakht, H., Jacob, J., Lowe, J., Zhang, K., Bradley, K., Wassin, M., Holzer, M., Ji, K., Ortet, M. D., Ai, T., Walton, N., Lio, P., Stranks, S., Shadbahr, T., Lin, W., Zha, Y., Niu, Z., Rudd, J. H. F., Sala, E., & Schönlieb, C.-B.
Affiliations
  • AstraZeneca (United Kingdom) (GB)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • University of Manchester (GB)
  • Royal Papworth Hospital (GB)
  • University of Dundee (GB)
  • Royal Brompton Hospital (GB)
  • Medical University of Vienna (AT)
  • University of Helsinki (FI)
  • Imperial College London (GB)
  • Boehringer Ingelheim (Germany) (DE)
  • Addenbrooke's Hospital (GB)
  • University College London (GB)
  • Macau University of Science and Technology (MO)
  • Tongji Hospital (CN)
  • Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (CN)
Corresponding author
Roberts, Michael
Venue
Nature Machine Intelligence
Published
2021-03-15
Volume
3
Issue
3
Pages
199-217
ISSN
2522-5839 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3119527628
Cited by
1,044
References
83
Citations by year
2026: 203 · 2025: 96 · 2024: 143 · 2023: 248 · 2022: 224 · 2021: 130
FWCI
98.41
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Machine Intelligence (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • elib (German Aerospace Center) (acceptedVersion)
  • Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (acceptedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • AstraZeneca
  • European Commission (777826)
  • Medical Research Council (1966157, MR/S010351/1)
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/T017961/1, EP/N014588/1, EP/S026045/1)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › COVID-19 diagnosis using AI
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Radiomics and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, machine learning, chest radiograph, chest CT, COVID-19 detection, outcome prediction, clinical utility, model validation, methodological errors, bias, research recommendations

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