AdaptiveSwin-CNN: Adaptive Swin-CNN Framework with Self-Attention Fusion for Robust Multi-Class Retinal Disease Diagnosis

Retinal diseases account for a large fraction of global blinding disorders, requiring sophisticated diagnostic tools for early management. In this study, the author proposes a hybrid deep learning framework in the form of AdaptiveSwin-CNN that combines Swin Transformers and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for the classification of multi-class retinal diseases. In contrast to traditional architectures, AdaptiveSwin-CNN utilizes a brand-new Self-Attention Fusion Module (SAFM) to effectively combine multi-scale spatial and contextual options to alleviate class imbalance and give attention to refined retina lesions. Utilizing the adaptive baseline augmentation and dataset-driven preprocessing of input images, the AdaptiveSwin-CNN model resolves the problem of the variability of fundus images in the dataset. AdaptiveSwin-CNN achieved a mean accuracy of 98.89%, sensitivity of 95.2%, specificity of 96.7%, and F1-score of 97.2% on RFMiD and ODIR benchmarks, outperforming other solutions. An additional lightweight ensemble XGBoost classifier to reduce overfitting and increase interpretability also increased diagnostic accuracy. The results highlight AdaptiveSwin-CNN as a robust and computationally efficient decision-support system.