Why do qualified candidates apply to role after role in clinical research and never hear back?

In this episode of the Clinical Trial Podcast, we unpack what's really happening behind the scenes in the hiring process.

Getting hired isn't just about your technical skills. It's about how hiring managers assess risk, how recruiters decide who to champion, and who actually gets attention versus who gets ignored.

Kunal Sampat is joined by Giovanni Lauricella, Co-Founder and CEO of Lifeblood, an executive search firm specializing in MedTech. With over 15 years of experience placing board members, C-suite leaders, and cross-functional talent globally, Giovanni brings a unique perspective from inside the hiring process.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why strong candidates get filtered out before interviews
• What hiring managers are actually looking for
• How recruiters decide who to advocate for
• What it really takes to break into and advance in clinical research

If you've ever felt stuck in your job search or wondered why the process feels like a black box, this conversation will give you a clearer understanding of how hiring decisions are actually made.

What separates strong clinical research from misleading conclusions?

Often, it comes down to study design.

In this episode of the Clinical Trial Podcast, Kunal Sampat sits down with Dr. Thomas Newman, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF and co-author of Designing Clinical Research, to break down how observational studies actually work.

While randomized controlled trials are often considered the gold standard, observational studies are essential in many real-world settings. But they come with challenges including bias, confounding, and misinterpretation that can lead to flawed conclusions if not handled correctly.

Dr. Newman shares a practical framework to help you design better studies, interpret results more critically, and build a stronger foundation in clinical research.

• When observational studies are more appropriate than randomized trials
• A practical framework for designing observational research
• Key threats to validity: bias, confounding, and chance
• How to interpret associations vs. causal effects
• Strategies for dealing with confounders in analysis
• How to approach statistics with more clarity and confidence

Dr. Thomas Newman, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. His work focuses on applying epidemiologic methods to important clinical problems in child health, including neonatal jaundice, infections in newborns, and cholesterol screening.

He is widely recognized for his contributions to clinical research education and is co-author of Designing Clinical Research and Evidence-Based Diagnosis.

If you want to grow in clinical research, you need more than surface-level knowledge - you need to understand how studies are designed and where they can go wrong.

This episode helps you think like a clinical researcher.