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.

He is editor-in-chief of Health and Human Rights Journal. White and Todd McCormack co-founded Partners In Health. PIH helps patients living in poverty to obtain effective drugs to treat tuberculosis and AIDS.

He was appointed as United Nations Secretary-General's Special Adviser for Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti on 28 December 2012. His work is the subject of Tracy Kidder's 2003 book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. He currently resides in Kigali Rwanda.