Dr. McDonald obtained his medical degree from the University of Illinois, and completed his internship in Internal Medicine at Boston City Hospital, Harvard Medical Service, and his residency in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital and University of Wisconsin. Before beginning his residency, he earned an MS in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, and completed a fellowship at NIH, where he managed the development of the first clinical laboratory computer system at the Clinical Research Center.Prior to joining NLM, Dr. McDonald was Regenstrief Professor of Medical Informatics and Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine and Director of the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care.

Dr. McDonald's research focuses on clinical informatics; analyzing clinical data and providing feedback to clinicians; development and study of electronic medical record systems (EMRs) and personal health records (PHRs); automatic reminder systems; promoting the development, enhancement, and adoption of clinical messaging and vocabulary standards; and using huge clinical databases and de-identifying them for clinical research use.