CALIBER: Pre-Generation Gated Image-Exemplar-Backed Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Trustworthy Dermoscopic Decision Support

The significant research contribution is the CALIBER framework, a calibrated visual-exemplar retrieval-augmented pipeline for dermoscopic decision support that combines DermCLIP-based retrieval, evidence sufficiency checking, conformal prediction, diagnostic confidence thresholds, and abstention. It improves not only diagnostic accuracy but also calibration, faithfulness, and evidence-grounded clinical reasoning, achieving 89.2% accuracy and demonstrating more trustworthy VLM-assisted dermatology decisions.