It can be put into making sure that our health care system has enough access so that if you are in a rural community somewhere in California or somewhere in Tennessee or somewhere in Georgia, you'll have access to health care.

CNN: Transcript of Thursday's Democratic presidential debate

Amid the political turmoil and poverty of rural Haiti, he created a community-based health-care system called Zanmi Lasante, or Partners in Health.

ECONOMIST: Medicine and the poor

To be sure, some mental health innovation can also be found in parts of the U.S. Project ECHO, partly funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, is using telephone and Internet technology to link specialists at the University of New Mexico with primary care doctors, community health workers, and health educators in rural parts of the state.

CNN: America has to tackle its suicide problem