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The increased size of unit required to deliver modern medical care, combined with the effect of rural population shifts in the last half century, has made modern medicine more and more an urban development. The result has been gradual depletion of the supply of health personnel and facilities in rural as compared with urban areas. Among the efforts to reverse this trend are the special emphasis on needs of rural areas in the Hill-Burton hospital survey and construction program; the inclusion of rural experience as part of the training of physicians; the organization of services on an area-wide basis, bringing the isolated physician and the small rural clinic or hospital into a working relationship with larger medical centers; and the activity of citizens' health councils. Current research and demonstrations need to be extended, and new types of research and demonstration must be developed. Rural sociologists, home economists, physicians, and other professional personnel, as well as the rural family and community groups, all have a role to play in coördinated efforts to equalize rural and urban health opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]