Hierarchical skin lesion image classification with prototypical decision tree

Traditional disease classification models often disregard the clinical significance of misclassifications and lack interpretability. To overcome these challenges, we propose a hierarchical prototypical decision tree (HPDT) for skin lesion classification. HPDT combines prototypical networks and decision trees, leveraging a class hierarchy to guide interpretable predictions from general to specific categories. By incorporating a hierarchy-based distance matrix, the model prioritizes less severe misclassifications while maintaining diagnostic accuracy. Evaluated on a dataset of 235,268 dermoscopic images across 65 conditions, HPDT outperforms flat classifiers and existing hierarchical methods in accuracy, error severity reduction, and interpretability. It also generalizes effectively to unseen classes. These results highlight the value of integrating clinical hierarchies into model design and training to improve diagnostic reliability and decision transparency, demonstrating HPDT’s potential for clinical decision support.