Key messages

- There is little rigorous evidence to support any financial, regulatory, selection or training strategy to improve the distribution of health professionals:

The following key messages are based on very low quality evidence:

- Health professionals from rural backgrounds are more likely to practice in rural areas
- Evidence from 4 quasi-randomised trials suggests that clinical rotations in a rural setting may influence medical students subsequent decisions to work in an underserved area
- The effectiveness of compulsory placement has been assessed by descriptive surveys with inconclusive results
- Loan repayments, direct incentives and medical resident-support programmes to encourage rural placement have the highest service completion rates and physician retention rates