Beyond Accuracy: Evaluating certainty of AI models for brain tumour detection.

Journal: Computers in biology and medicine
Published Date:

Abstract

Brain tumors pose a severe health risk, often leading to fatal outcomes if not detected early. While most studies focus on improving classification accuracy, this research emphasizes prediction certainty, quantified through loss values. Traditional metrics like accuracy and precision do not capture confidence in predictions, which is critical for medical applications. This study establishes a correlation between lower loss values and higher prediction certainty, ensuring more reliable tumor classification. We evaluate CNN, ResNet50, XceptionNet, and a Proposed Model (VGG19 with customized classification layers) using accuracy, precision, recall, and loss. Results show that while accuracy remains comparable across models, the Proposed Model achieves the best performance (96.95 % accuracy, 0.087 loss), outperforming others in both precision and recall. These findings demonstrate that certainty-aware AI models are essential for reliable clinical decision-making. This study highlights the potential of AI to bridge the shortage of medical professionals by integrating reliable diagnostic tools in healthcare. AI-powered systems can enhance early detection and improve patient outcomes, reinforcing the need for certainty-driven AI adoption in medical imaging.

Authors

  • Zaib Un Nisa
    Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, The Superior University, Lahore, 54600, Pakistan; Intelligent Data Visual Computing Research (IDVCR), Lahore, 54600, Pakistan. Electronic address: zaib.unnisa82@yahoo.com.
  • Sohail Masood Bhatti
    Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, The Superior University, Lahore, Pakistan.
  • Arfan Jaffar
    Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, The Superior University, Lahore 54600, Pakistan.
  • Tehseen Mazhar
    Department of Computer Science, Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
  • Tariq Shahzad
    Department of Computer Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, Sahiwal, 57000, Pakistan.
  • Yazeed Yasin Ghadi
    Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
  • Ahmad Almogren
    Chia of Pervasive and Mobile Computing, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11543, Saudi Arabia.
  • Habib Hamam
    School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.