Machine learning applications in the evaluation and management of psoriasis: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Background: Machine learning (ML), a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that aims to teach machines to automatically learn tasks by inferring patterns from data, holds significant promise to aid psoriasis care. Applications include evaluation of skin images for screening and diagnosis as well as clinical management including treatment and complication prediction. Objective: To summarize literature on ML applications to psoriasis evaluation and management and to discuss challenges and opportunities for future advances. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore for peer-reviewed publications published in English through December 1, 2019. Our search queries identified publications with any of the 10 computing-related keywords and “psoriasis” in the title and/or abstract. Results: Thirty-three studies were identified. Articles were organized by topic and synthesized as evaluation- or management-focused articles covering 5 content categories: (A) Evaluation using skin images: (1) identification and differential diagnosis of psoriasis lesions, (2) lesion segmentation, and (3) lesion severity and area scoring; (B) clinical management: (1) prediction of complications and (2) treatment. Conclusion: Machine learning has significant potential to aid psoriasis evaluation and management. Current topics popular in ML research on psoriasis are the evaluation of medical images, prediction of complications, and treatment discovery. For patients to derive the greatest benefit from ML advancements, it is helpful for dermatologists to have an understanding of ML and how it can effectively aid their assessments and decision-making.
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A meta-analysis evaluating the performance of image-based AI models for skin disease severity assessment has not been reported.
“Notably, a meta-analysis evaluating the performance of image-based AI models for skin disease severity assessment has not been reported.15,16”
From Assessing the performance of artificial intelligence models in evaluating inflammatory skin disease severity: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [15]
The Results (page unavailable) say this review qualitatively synthesized 33 studies, including 12 on image-based lesion severity and area scoring; the Methods likewise describe a qualitative synthesis. That supports the narrower point that this review did not perform a performance meta-analysis, but the paper does not establish the broader claim that no such meta-analysis had been reported elsewhere. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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PRISMA-P Group, Moher, D., Shamseer, L., Clarke, M., Ghersi, D., Liberati, A., Petticrew, M., Shekelle, P., & Stewart, L. A. (2015) · Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1186/2046-4053-4-1 · Cited by 26,223 · see citing works
Risk of myocardial infarction in patients with psoriasis
Gelfand, J. M., Neimann, A. L., Shin, D. B., Wang, X., Margolis, D. J., & Troxel, A. B. (2006) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.296.14.1735 · Cited by 1,899 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Psoriasis is associated with a number of comorbidities, 18 including psoriatic arthritis, 14 cardiovascular disease, 15 and diabetes.”
BackgroundSelf-citationMachine Learning and Health Care Disparities in Dermatology
Adamson, A. S., & Smith, A. (2018) · JAMA Dermatology · doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2018.2348 · Cited by 639 · cited 1× · see citing works
“58,59 Finally, many algorithms developed for dermatology have not yet been tested in a clinical setting nor evaluated for important clinical metrics such as positive-and negative-predictive value.”
BackgroundBrinker, T. J., Hekler, A., Enk, A. H., Klode, J., Hauschild, A., Berking, C., Schilling, B., Haferkamp, S., Schadendorf, D., Holland-Letz, T., et al. (2019) · European Journal of Cancer · doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2019.04.001 · Cited by 605 · see citing works
Han, S. S., Park, G. H., Lim, W., Kim, M. S., Na, J. I., Park, I., & Chang, S. E. (2018) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0191493 · Cited by 305 · see citing works
Psoriasis skin biopsy image segmentation using Deep Convolutional Neural Network
Pal, A., Garain, U., Chandra, A., Chatterjee, R., & Senapati, S. (2018) · Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine · doi:10.1016/j.cmpb.2018.01.027 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
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“For instance, a robot learning to open doors could be rewarded when it succeeds, or be penalized for failure [6,9,10].”
- Authors
- Yu, K., Syed, M. N., Bernardis, E., & Gelfand, J. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yu, Kimberley
- Venue
- Journal of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-08-31
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 147-159
- ISSN
- 2475-5303 (ISSN-L)
- 2475-5311
- PMC
- PMC7963214
- OpenAlex
- W3082120157
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 0.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Pennsylvania (Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Psoriasis: Treatment and Pathogenesis
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
- Keywords
- psoriasis, machine learning, artificial intelligence, skin lesion segmentation, psoriasis diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment prediction, complication prediction, dermatology
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