Systematic Reviews to Inform Practice, January/February 2026

Although the rates of some sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have decreased in recent years, millions of people in the United States and worldwide remain affected.Based on data from 2015 to 2016, 48% of Americans have herpes simplex type I. 1 There were 572,000 new infections, and it has been estimated that 18.6 million Americans have genital herpes. 2 More female than male individuals have genital herpes. 1 Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common infection that affects about 42 million Americans, and there are about 13 million new infections annually.3 HPV can cause genital warts.In one systematic review, the incidence rate per 100,000 was 193 for women and 243 for men in Southwest Washington and Oregon.4 Female individuals who are untreated for STIs are at risk of long-term impacts such as pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, chronic pelvic pain, and pregnancy complications.5,6 Barriers in screening and detecting STIs continue, including identifying those at risk for STIs and the type of infection.Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize the early diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases 7 and may have applications in sexual health.AI models have been developed that are inching closer to use in the clinical setting and are highly accurate in diagnosing skin cancer and common skin conditions such as acne, psoriasis, eczema, and rosacea.8 These advances offer hope that AI can be used in identifying and diagnosing skin conditions related to STIs.Data from images, medical research, patient laboratory results, and validated diagnoses are used to develop AI models that identify patterns in the data to efficiently and accurately predict diagnoses.AI models consist of algorithms, which are step-by-step instructions (code) that learn from data, make decisions, and solve problems.The AI models are trained on large databases containing images, laboratory results, patient data, and diagnoses to detect patterns in the data that can be detected quicker and easier by AI than by humans.7 Currently, AI is used in diagnosing cancer and cardiac issues, predicting and managing prediabetes, and tracking COVID-19.7 Soe and