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Medicine

DermAgent: A Self-Reflective Agentic System for Dermatological Image Analysis with Multi-Tool Reasoning and Traceable Decision-Making

Yize Liu, Siyuan Yan

Featured June 6, 2026

Original Paper

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Simply

A smart AI system for skin diagnosis uses many specialized tools, external knowledge, and a self-checking mechanism to avoid mistakes and provide trustworthy, step-by-step answers.

In depth
The paper introduces DermAgent, a collaborative multi-tool agent designed for dermatological image analysis. It orchestrates seven specialized vision and language modules within a Plan–Execute–Reflect framework to provide stepwise, traceable diagnostic reasoning. A key innovation is its dual-modality retrieval module, which grounds predictions in external evidence from 413,210 diagnosed image cases and 3,199 clinical guideline chunks, significantly mitigating hallucinations. Furthermore, a deterministic Critic module performs strict post-hoc auditing via confidence, coverage, and conflict gates, triggering targeted self-correction.

Key Takeaways

  • 1
    DermAgent employs a Plan–Execute–Reflect loop, orchestrating seven specialized vision and language tools to provide transparent, stepwise diagnostic reasoning.
  • 2
    The system integrates a dual-modality retrieval module (Case RAG and Guideline RAG) to anchor every prediction in external, verifiable clinical evidence, reducing reliance on parametric memory and preventing hallucinations.
  • 3
    A deterministic Critic module actively audits the evidence chain for low confidence, missing coverage, and inter-source conflicts, enabling targeted self-correction and enhancing diagnostic accuracy and reliability.

Conceptual Flow

HIGH LEVEL
1
Methodology: How DermAgent Works

The system acts like a smart doctor, planning what to check, using different tools to gather facts, and then double-checking everything before giving an answer.

Skin Image
Question
Think & Plan
Use Tools
Check Work
Final Answer
2
Results: DermAgent's Impact

The new system is much better at finding skin diseases, describing them, and explaining its findings compared to other smart computer programs.

Old AI Methods
DermAgent
Compare Performance
Lower Accuracy
Higher Accuracy