Ethan Pratt, Head of Engineering at SandboxAQ’s AQMed division, joins Tai-Danae Bradley for a conversation about building heart-health technology that can meet clinicians where they are: in the fast, messy reality of the emergency room.

In this episode, Ethan explains AQMed’s work on magnetocardiography, a technique designed to capture the heart’s magnetic signals and help address one of medicine’s toughest everyday challenges: evaluating chest-pain patients in the ER’s diagnostic “gray zone.” He shares why the team has focused so intensely on real hospital workflows, how an “algorithmic shield” helps separate the heart’s signal from ambient magnetic noise, and why getting prototypes into real clinical settings matters more than waiting for perfection in the lab.

The conversation also traces Ethan’s unconventional path into medtech, f ...