Based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Stephen McDonald is Director of Dialysis and a Senior Staff Nephrologist at The Central Northern Renal and Transplantation Service (based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital), and Clinical Director of Renal Services for the Country Health region of SA Health. He is Executive Officer of the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry, and holds academic status as Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine of the University of Adelaide, and Principal Research Fellow in the SA Health and Medical Research Institute. He chairs the National Indigenous Kidney Transplant Taskforce, an outcome of the work done within the ANZDATA Registry in idetifyign barriers to waitlisting for patients.

He has overseen an number of changes to the Registry and operations. These include Registry based trials, and the ANZDATA Registry now hosts 4 ongoing trials across dialysis and and transplantation.