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The German healthcare system is struggling with fragmentation of care in the face of an increasing shortage of general practitioners and allied health professionals, and the time-demanding healthcare needs of an aging, multimorbid patient population. Innovative interprofessional, intersectoral models of care are required to ensure adequate access to primary care across a variety of rural and urban settings into the foreseeable future. A team approach to care of the complex multimorbid patient population appears particularly suitable in attracting and retaining the next generation of healthcare professionals, including general practitioners. In 2014, the German Advisory Council on the Assessment of Developments in the Health Care System highlighted the importance of regional, integrated care with community-based primary care centres at its core, providing comprehensive, population-based, patient-centred primary care with adequate access to general practitioners for a given geographical area. Such centres exist already in Ontario, Canada; within Family Health Teams (FHT), family physicians work hand-in-hand with pharmacists, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, and other allied health professionals. In this article, the Canadian model of FHT will be introduced and we will discuss which components could be adapted to suit the German primary care system., Competing Interests: FMG ist seit 2007 Mitglied und seit 2012 Vorsitzender des Sachverständigenrates zur Begutachtung der Entwicklung im Gesundheitswesen. AE hat an der Erstellung der SVR-Gutachten der Jahre 2009, 2012 und 2014 mitgearbeitet. TP ist ärztliche Leiterin eines akademischen Family Health Teams in Toronto, Ontario, Kanada. Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt gemäß der ICMJE Recommendations (Stand Dezember 2016) besteht., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)