Artificial Intelligence Predicts Fitzpatrick Skin Type, Pigmentation, Redness, and Wrinkle Severity From Color Photographs of the Face.

BACKGROUND

Due to high patient demand, increasing numbers of non-dermatologists are performing skin assessments and carrying out laser interventions in medical spas, leading to inferior outcomes and higher complications. A machine learning tool that automatically analyzes patient skin has the potential to aid non-dermatologists.

AIMS: To develop a high-performing machine learning model that predicts Fitzpatrick skin type, hyperpigmentation, redness, and wrinkle severity simultaneously.

METHODS

We developed the SkinAnalysis dataset of 3662 images, labeled by a dermatologist across five skin scales. We trained and evaluated machine learning models across 15 different configurations, including three neural network architectures and two loss functions.

RESULTS

The best-performing model was an EfficientNet-V2M architecture with a custom cross entropy loss. This model's mean test set accuracy across all labels was 85.41 ± 9.86 and its mean test set AUROC was 0.8306 ± 0.09599. An interesting trend emerged in which machine learning model performance was higher at the extremes of the scales, suggesting greater clinical ambiguity in the middle of the scales.

CONCLUSIONS

Machine learning models are capable of predicting multiple skin characteristics simultaneously from color photographs of the face. In the future, similar models could assist non-dermatologists in patient skin evaluation to enhance treatment planning.