Rate My Professor Christine O'Neill

Christine O'Neill is a Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle. She earned her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with honours from the University of Melbourne in 2000 and a Master of Surgery in endocrine surgery from the University of Sydney in 2010, focusing on thyroid cancer genetics. A Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons since 2009, she completed general surgical training in Melbourne and rural Victoria from 2000 to 2004, followed by a two-year endocrine surgery fellowship with the University of Sydney Endocrine Surgical Unit in 2009-2010. As a subspecialist endocrine and general surgeon, she practices across public and private sectors, operating at facilities including John Hunter Hospital, Lake Macquarie Private, Newcastle Private, Calvary Mater, and Belmont Hospitals. Her primary appointments include John Hunter Hospital, Hunter Medical Research Institute, and the University of Newcastle. She heads the Department of General Surgery at John Hunter Hospital, chairs the Hunter New England Endocrine Surgery Multidisciplinary Team, and serves on the leadership committee of the HMRI Surgical and Peri-operative Care Research Program. From 2010 to 2019, she supervised general surgical training for the Newcastle/Gosford network and continues to contribute to surgical training programs and hospital accreditation across Australia and New Zealand.

O'Neill's research centers on endocrine cancers, particularly thyroid cancer, health-related quality of life, health behaviour, decision making, and implementation science. She has authored over 80 publications, accumulating more than 3,500 citations. Notable works include 'Risk of Cancer Recurrence Exerts the Strongest Influence on Choice Between Active Surveillance and Thyroid Surgery as Initial Treatment for Low-Risk Thyroid Cancer: Results of a Discrete Choice Experiment' (2025), 'Genetic modification of the AJCC classification of papillary thyroid cancer: an international, multicentre, retrospective cohort study' in The Lancet Oncology (2025), 'Thyroid Cancer Survivors Experience Persistent Symptoms and Health-Related Quality-of-Life Deficits 12 Months Following Surgery' (2025), and 'Sleepless Surgeons: Insights From a Study on Consultant On-Call Interruptions' (2026). She holds positions as Endocrine Surgery Associate Editor for the ANZ Journal of Surgery, President of the Australian and New Zealand Endocrine Surgeons (2025-2028), former Research and Scientific Officer for the organization (2022-2025), and member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons executive committee for endocrine surgery. An invited speaker at local and international surgical meetings, she supervises Masters and PhD students and is pursuing a PhD on quality of life in thyroid cancer patients.