In addition to patient care, EHR data are increasingly in demand for secondary purposes, e.g. administration, research and enterprise resource planning. We conducted a systematic literature review and subsequent analysis of 85 articles focusing on the secondary use of structured patient records. We grounded the analysis on how patient records have been structured, how these structures have been evaluated and what are the main results achieved from the secondary use viewpoint. We conclude that secondary use requires complete and interoperable patient records, which in turn depend on better alignment of primary and secondary users' needs and benefits.