I can't think of a better model for Haiti rebuilding than Rwanda.

The poorest parts of the world are by and large the places in which one can best view the worst of medicine and not because doctors in these countries have different ideas about what constitutes modern medicine. It's the system and its limitations that are to blame.

I feel it's part of my job to make the problems of the poor compelling.

The model of the teaching hospital, which links research to teaching and service is what's missing in global health.

But as for activism, my parents did what they could, given the constraints, but were never involved in the causes I think of when I think of activists.

At the same time, it is obvious that clinicians in Haiti are faced with different, and, in fact, greater, challenges when attempting to treat complications of HIV disease.

That's when I feel most alive, when I'm helping people.