A Deep-Learning-Based Framework for Automated Diagnosis of COVID-19 Using X-ray Images

The emergence and outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) had a devasting effect on global health, the economy, and individuals' daily lives. Timely diagnosis of COVID-19 is a crucial task, as it reduces the risk of pandemic spread, and early treatment will save patients' life. Due to the time-consuming, complex nature, and high false-negative rate of the gold-standard RT-PCR test used for the diagnosis of COVID-19, the need for an additional diagnosis method has increased. Studies have proved the significance of X-ray images for the diagnosis of COVID-19. The dissemination of deep-learning techniques on X-ray images can automate the diagnosis process and serve as an assistive tool for radiologists. In this study, we used four deep-learning models-DenseNet121, ResNet50, VGG16, and VGG19-using the transfer-learning concept for the diagnosis of X-ray images as COVID-19 or normal. In the proposed study, VGG16 and VGG19 outperformed the other two deep-learning models. The study achieved an overall classification accuracy of 99.3%.