Associate Professor Stephen McDonald

Biography/ Background

Based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Stephen McDonald is a senior consultant nephrologist at The Central Northern Renal and Transplantation Service, 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 Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine of the University of Adelaide.

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 physician to a number of remote Aboriginal communities. Later he returned to Adelaide to a post-doctoral position in the ANZDATA Registry, and ultimately staff nephrologist post with the Dept of Nephrology & Transplantation Service at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and more recently in the amalgamated Central Northern Adelaide Renal and Transplantation Service at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He retains a substantial interest in non-metropolitan renal services in his role as Clinical Director for Renal Services for County Health SA; he also provides the renal transplant assessment service in Alice Springs and Darwin. As a clinician, his practice includes care for in- and out-patients with all types of kidney disease including acute and chronic kidney disease, people receiving all forms of dialysis and those with kidney transplants.

Qualifications

MBBS (Hons), University of Adelaide, 1991

FRACP, 1997

PhD, Flinders University of SA, 2004

Thesis title: “Renal disease, cardiovascular disease and shared risk factors in remote Aboriginal communities”

 

Teaching Interests

Teaching interests are focussed on supervision of PhD students. He was the primary supervisor of Dr Shaundeep Sen until submission of his thesison the influence of end-stage kidney disease on endothelial progenitor cell function in March 2012.  He currently co-supervises Dr Philip Clayton, whose thesis focuses on epidemiological studies of kidney transplant outcomes..

He was a member of the National Examiners' Panel for the RACP Clinical Examination for a number of years, and subsequently joined the Senior Examiners' Panel in 2011. A substantial portion of time is spent each year in teaching advanced clinical skills to physician trainees sitting this examination.

Research Interests

Research interests: 

ANZDATA and ANZOD Registries.

 ANZDATA – Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplantation Registry . This is a registry which is responsible for the collection, analysis and dissemination of information about treatment for end-stage kidney disease for Australia and New Zealand.

The ANZOD  Registry collects information about deceased solid organ donors in Australia and New Zealand

Both of these Registries are based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Prof Graeme Russ is the Chair of the Registry Executive, A/Prof Stephen McDonald the Executive Officer, and Kylie Hurst the Registry Manager. Core funding is provided by the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority , the New Zealand Ministry of Health and Kidney Health Australia.

These Registries fulfil a number of roles:

1)      As the major source of data about incidence and treatment patterns of end-stage kidney disease, dialysis and transplantation they have a substantial input into health service planning at a jurisdictional level

 

2)      They provide an extensive network of quality-assurance reports / data to individual units about a range of processes and outcomes in dialysis and transplantation

 

3)      They provide the database and epidemiological / statistical expertise behind a wide network of research studies based on the Registry, involving local, interstate and international collaborations.

 

There have been several successful PhD theses written in part or in full based upon these databases, together with a number of lesser degrees and projects.

 Indigenous renal disease

Rates of chronic kidney disease among Aboriginal Australians are many times higher than those of non-indigenous Australians. The epidemiology of this problem and associated treatments are a major focus, particularly with respect to end-stage kidney disease.

Surrogate markers of cardiovascular disease

A/Prof McDonald was the principal PhD supervisor for Dr Shaundeep Sen (submitted Feb 2012). In collaboration with A/ProfToby Coates, and Dr Claudine Bonder (IMVS Vascular Biology Laboratory), his thesis examined the role of endothelial progenitor cells in the uraemic setting  in both in vivo and in vitro and clinical studies.

Publications

A/Prof Mcdonald has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in a wide variety of journals. For details, see attached list.

Professional Associations

A/Prof McDonald is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian Society of Physicians.

He is a member of

• Australia & New Zealand Society of Nephrology
• American Society of Nephrology
• International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis
• Australasian Epidemiological Association

Files

• Journal_articles_at_21_8_12.docx [50.2K] (application/octet-stream)

Entry last updated: Wednesday, 12 Dec 2012