Clinical research is the powerful way we can study and learn how to prevent, diagnose, and treat illness. Clinical data, biobank, and research results are three major resources for clinical research. Subject recruitment is critical to the success of clinical research, but is costly in term of time and money. The increasing use of electronic medical records (EMR) has launched a discipline of clinical research, which offers great opportunities for clinical recruitment. China is rich in disease associated resources and has accumulated mountains of clinical data in EMR accordingly. However, the data in EMR are little used for clinical research. Here we review the challenging issues of EMR data in the hospital and discuss the possibility to improve quality and usability of EMR data for clinical research. This article also provides an overview of how to develop a strategic planning and methods to investigate if EMR linked associated biobank can be leveraged for clinical and translational research studies.