Charlie Teo

Teo has received much media attention as something of a miracle worker. 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".

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 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.

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.

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".

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

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