President and Founder, The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention

Dr. Freeman attacks the root causes of the disparity between cancer survival rates in different communities. "My understanding of injustice is very deep," he says. "In the medical system, injustice means the difference between life and death." Throughout his career, which includes stints as chairman of the U.S. President's Cancer Panel and national president of the American Cancer Society, he's advocated two simple but powerful principles: Everybody who has cancer should be treated, and everybody who might should be screened.

In the system devised by Dr. Freeman, "patient navigators" venture into the community and talk about cancer and other serious health issues. They make sure people know that care is available to them, irrespective of their ability to pay. They help patients fill out forms and secure the benefits to which they are entitled. Above all, they listen. One-on-one sessions are central to the experience.

The results point to genuine success—patients coming in for treatment earlier and living longer. "It's not guesswork," Dr. Freeman maintains. "These patients are just as poor, just as black, just as Hispanic, just as uninsured" as the pre-navigation group. The system that Dr. Freeman invented in Harlem is now practiced in more than 300 programs around the country, including 15 government-sponsored pilot sites.