Overview of the ImageCLEF 2012 Medical Image Retrieval and Classification Tasks

The ninth edition of the ImageCLEF medical image retrieval and classification tasks was organized in 2012. A subset of the open access collection of PubMed Central was used as the database in 2012, using a larger number of over 300’000 images than in 2011. As in previous years, there were three subtasks: modality classification, image–based and case–based retrieval. A new hierarchy for article figures was created for the modality classification task. The modality detection could be one of the most important filters to limit the search and focus the results sets. The goal of the image–based and the case–based retrieval tasks were similar compared to 2011 adding mainly complexity. The number of groups submitting runs has remained stable at 17, with the number of submitted runs remaining roughly the same with 202 (207 in 2011). Of these, 122 were image–based retrieval runs, 37 were case–based runs while the remaining 43 were modality classification runs. Depending on the exact nature of the task, visual, textual or multimodal approaches performed better.