The shortage of health care professionals in rural areas has long been an important issue for government authority. We reviewed and discussed important strategies and policies dealing with the supply of health care professionals in rural areas in several countries, including Taiwan, United States of America, Canada, and Japan. These strategies included: 1. market saturation strategy; 2. affiliation strategy; 3. economic incentive strategy 4. medical scholarship program: 5. foreign physician immigration program: 6. multidiscipline strategy; and 7. supportive hospital strategy. We suggested that when planning the supply of health care professionals in rural areas, focus should be given to the financial arrangement of the special supportive program, the usage of non-physician health care professionals in primary care in rural areas, the reinforcement of the responsibility of medical education in training health care professionals for rural areas, and the importance of the supportive hospital in providing health care services to rural areas.