Professor Fairley has substantially improved sexual health services over many years. He was the first to recognise that access to health care was the key driver of sexually transmitted infections (STI) in Indigenous communities (Hansard 1997). He has led innovations in sexual health services in Australia and internationally that have materially improved access to services including ‘virtual’ services for notifying sexual partners and remote testing, and most recently a web site that diagnoses STls using a Bayesian mathematical algorithm. Currently he is working on a new paradigm for the transmission of gonorrhoea that may provide a condomless control intervention (using mouthwash).