Born from Healthcare.
Built for Change.

Switchboard, MD was created by physicians and healthcare professionals who know the system from the inside.

With deep clinical roots and technical rigor, the team is focused on solving the operational challenges that slow care down.

About Us
Clinical communication
Our History

During the pandemic, we saw firsthand how communication overwhelms providers.

Messages intended for other staff flooded our founder's inbox, requiring constant manual forwarding and rerouting to administrative teams—pulling focus from patient care. This daily friction, coupled with growing clinician burnout and late-night "pajama time," made the need for change clear.

To address it, Dr. Blake Anderson—a practicing internal medicine physician at Emory Healthcare and former Chief Health Informatics Officer at the Atlanta VA—applied his computer-science background to train an NLP model that triages patient messages directly within the electronic medical record. The system automatically routes each message to the correct inbox, eliminating roughly 40% of messages previously sent to clinicians.

In 2025, the model's results at Emory Healthcare were published in NEJM AI . What began as a single triage algorithm has evolved into a platform that now spans calls, texts, voicemails, faxes, and email—helping healthcare organizations streamline communication and refocus attention on patient care.

The Timeline

Our movement throughout the years.

May 2021

Initial intellectual property disclosure submitted to Emory Healthcare outlining what became MDAware.

Nov 2021

Switchboard, MD officially founded.

Sept 2022

Emory Healthcare inbox-triage pilot completed on Cerner EMR.

Nov 2022

First client live on the COVID-19 identification model.

July 2023

First full-time cohort joins; results published in JAMA Network.

Apr 2024

Emory Healthcare signs as first Inbox Management client.

Jun 2024

Grant from BARDA DRIVe (HHS) to develop disease-escalation model.

Aug 2024

Contact Center expands to include live calls, voicemails, texts, chats, and emails.

Dec 2024

Graph-theoretic analysis of EMR messages published in Frontiers.

Jan 2025

Fax automation added to Contact Center suite.

Feb 2025

Development & Evaluation of a Model to Manage Portal Messages published in NEJM AI.

Jun 2025

Launch of self-scheduling capabilities within the Switchboard platform.

The Switchboard Difference

What We Deliver

More time for doctors to see patients

Optimize clinician workflows by instantly directing patient communications to the right resource for faster resolution. Streamline processes like scheduling calls and patient-portal messaging so physicians can stay focused on patient care.

Leadership Team

Blake Anderson, MD

Founder,
Chief Executive Officer,
Chief Technology Officer

Ankit Tiwari

Co-founder,
Chief Commercial Officer

Will Akers

Co-founder,
Chief Strategy Officer

Hans Andersson

VP Tech Ops & Legal

Advisory Team

Evan Schoenberg, MD

Executive Advisor

David Gutman, MD

Data Advisor

Chris Casstevens, MD

Technology Advisor

Aakash Chauhan, MD

Orthopedics Advisor

Mike Welborn

Board Advisor

See how physician-built AI can work for your team.