OBJECTIVES: Observational data derived from clinical practice is becoming increasingly important to answer questions that cannot be addressed by RCTs. Although there are a number of administrative databases in Canada, access to more comprehensive, longitudinal clinical data such as smoking status, body weight and laboratory values in the primary care setting is limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate a Primary Care EMR (Electronic Medical Record) system to determine its feasibility for use in observational studies. METHODS: We analyzed de-identified patient data from primary Health Care Professionals (HCPs) including General Practitioners from 2009-2011. Comprehensiveness and completeness of each variable by visit were evaluated. First steps were taken to understand how the patient population compares to data from published sources. RESULTS: There were 3,019,954 patient visits observed by 255,274 active patients (≥1 visit). The patient visits were entered by 497 HCPs (152 physicians). Data are available for demographics, vitals, smoking status, laboratory values, prescriptions, medical history, diagnosis (ICD-9), short term absences and referrals. Completeness of each variable by visit ranged from 26% for pulse to 100% for age, sex, lab results and referrals. Initial assessment revealed that 85.6% of written prescriptions and 88% of diagnoses were recorded using structured fields. The median age of patients in the EMR was 37.2 years compared to 39.9 years reported by Statistics Canada (July 2011). Younger age groups were overrepresented, with the largest difference found in those 20-29 years; no difference was observed for sex. CONCLUSIONS: The status of electronic primary care health records in Canada is still in its infancy. The research suggests this is a valuable new addition to support observational studies in Canada. Disease specific validation studies will be required prior to further analysis. Further research is being undertaken to review quality measures.