Lessons Learned as a Surgeon & Fund Investor

In this episode, Ryan Khanna, MD, MBA co-hosts a discussion with Robert Eastlack who runs a premier surgical spine practice in San Diego, CA and is a GP in a venture capital fund. Dr. Eastlack shares the background of how he got into angel and venture investing and offers some insights on how they execute their fund.

Dr. Robert Eastlack was born in Wyoming, and grew up primarily in Alaska, before attending Stanford University.  He majored in Human Biology with focus on Neurophysiology, and while there was on the Stanford Men’s Swimming Team, serving as captain in his senior year.  After finishing his undergraduate studies, he stayed and joined the research team in the Cardiology Department before attending medical school nearer his family in Texas.  Following graduation from Baylor College of Medicine, he returned to California, where he and his wife both matched at UCSD for their residency training.  The Orthopaedic Surgery residency was combined with a year of research fellowship, and under the tutelage of Dr. Steven Garfin, he decided upon undertaking a spine fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  Upon completion of the fellowship, Dr. Eastlack returned to San Diego, working with both UCSD and the San Diego Spine Foundation fellowship programs, as well as the UCSD Orthopedic Surgery Department as a Clinical Instructor.  

In 2008, he moved to Scripps Clinic in the Division of Orthopedic Surgery, and continues to serve as a Consultant there.  He also acts as Co-Director for the spine fellowship training program that is managed by the San Diego Spine Foundation.  He is a member of the International Spine Study Group, focused on adult deformity and minimally invasive research, and undertakes clinical and basic science research at Scripps Clinic as well.  His clinical interests are in cervical reconstruction, minimally invasive spinal reconstruction, and complex deformity surgery.  His wife Jennifer Eastlack is a Dermatologist in San Diego, and they have five children.  His personal interests include coaching various sports teams (baseball, soccer, and basketball) on which his children play and playing golf, as well as co-managing a life science fund and medical device development.