Charles Teo

Charles Teo AM (born 24 December 1957) is an Australian neurosurgeon.

Teo was born to Chinese-Singaporean parents who immigrated to Australia.

He attended The Scots College and the University of New South Wales, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1981.

Charlie Teo trained in Sydney completing a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) at the University of New South Wales. He started out in general neurosurgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital before moving to the United States. In the United States he completed a fellowship in Dallas, Texas, where he became the only Australian neurosurgeon certified by a US medical board. Teo spent almost 10 years in the United States where he was an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the state-of-the-art Arkansas Children's Hospital.

He is the director of the Centre for Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery at Prince of Wales Hospital, the founder of Cure Brain Cancer Foundation (formerly Cure For Life Foundation), and the founder of the Charlie Teo Foundation.

Over the course of his career Teo has developed a strong international reputation in the field of minimally-invasive (or ‘keyhole’) neurosurgery, he has been invited speaker and visiting professor in more than thirty-five countries, associated with such institutions as Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Albert Einstein University, Marburg University and the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. He has written some thirty book chapters and numerous scholarly papers. While still teaching regularly in the USA, he also teaches and sponsors the education of neurosurgeons from developing countries such as Peru, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Romania, and treats children from developing countries with neurological conditions.

Teo has received much media attention as something of a miracle worker, but some neurosurgeons have criticised him as being too radical, offering "false hope" to patients who are believed to have an incurable brain cancer or a brain tumour that is dangerously located. In May 2019, controversy arose when a prominent urologist commented on the large number of GoFundMe campaigns requesting considerable sums of money for patients to have surgery done by Teo, when Australia's public health system should be performing any required surgery in the public system. An investigative journalism article also described 14 neurosurgeons (none of whom would be named) commenting on Teo's outstanding surgical skills, while "(raising) serious questions about his judgment, narcissistic behaviour, (and) charging financially-stressed people exorbitant fees when some surgeries could be done for free in a public hospital".

A story about Teo and one of his patients, the young pianist Aaron McMillan, is detailed in the book Life in his Hands by Susan Wyndham. A patient of Charlie Teo's, Sally White, has written of her experiences in Three Quotes From A Plumber: How a Second Opinion Changed the Life of a Woman with a Brain Tumour Teo has also been featured in several TV programs including the ABC's Q&A, Good Medicine, 60 Minutes, Last Chance Surgery, Australian Story, Enough Rope and Anh's Brush with Fame.

In 2011 Teo's significant contribution to society was recognized when he was made a Member of The Order of Australia for service to medicine as a neurosurgeon through the introduction of minimally invasive techniques, as a researcher, educator and mentor, and through the establishment of the Cure for Life Foundation.

Teo gave the 50th Anniversary Errol Solomon Meyers Memorial Lecture at the University of Queensland in August 2007. Teo gave the 2012 Australia Day speech on 23 January 2012.

He is married to Genevieve Teo (née Agnew); the couple have four daughters.

Since 2009, Teo and his wife have been council members for Australian animal welfare group Voiceless."Doctors may not have direct responsibility for the injustices of modern agriculture but we do have the power to help overcome them. We hold a privileged role in society; we are trusted as scientific minds and reliable carers.Our communities will listen when we explain the illness and suffering that lies hidden behind the closed doors of factory farms".

• Jane McGrath
• Aaron McMillan
• Dr Chris O'Brien
• Stan Zemanek