Based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Stephen McDonald is Director of Dialysis and Senior Staff Nephrologist at The Central Northern Renal and Transplantation Service, Clinical Director of Renal Services for the Country Health SA Rural Support Service and chairs the South Australian Renal Community of Practice. Within SAHMRI, he is Executive Officer of the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry and Chair of the National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce. He holds academic status as Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine of the University of Adelaide, and Principal Research Fellow in SAHMRI.

Following clinical training in nephrology at various hospitals in Adelaide, he moved to the world of epidemiological research at Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin in 1998. There he examined relationships between early kidney and cardiovascular disease and markers of inflammation and nutrition among remote Aboriginal communities. He also spent time as a general and renal physician to a number of remote Aboriginal communities. He returned to Adelaide in 2001 to the ANZDATA Registry, where he is now the Executive Officer. In that role, he oversees the operations of the Registry (a clinical quality registry for dialysis and kidney transplantation across Australia and New Zealand) and the associated research activities. He also leads the National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce. This federally funded organisation is focussed on improving access to and outcomes of kidney transplantation among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and is based in SAHMRI.

His research interests centre on the epidemiology of end-stage kidney disease and Registry Science. Particular areas of interest are in leveraging the value of registry data using data linkage and registry-embedded trials, integrating consumer input and engagement across the research process, and  the effect of centre-specific reporting. More broadly, he is the inaugural Chair of the Registries Special Interest Group of the Australasia Clinical Trials Alliance, and sits on a number of national committees related to dialysis and kidney transplantation and Registry practice.