SomnoMed Limited (ASX:SOM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jagdeep Bijwadia, MD as Chief Medical Officer of SomnoMed North America. 

Dr. Bijwadia is currently the Department Head, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at Health Partners Medical Group in Bloomington, Minnesota.  In this role, he helped build the sleep practice, which consists of an accredited laboratory, a multi-disciplinary sleep center, a DME program and a team of 11 clinical staff including sleep physicians, neurologists, and psychologists. 

In addition to his leadership of the department, Dr. Bijwadia is the Medical Director of the Region’s Hospital Sleep Health Center and Assistant Professor of the Medicine Divisions of Pulmonary/ Critical Care/ Allergy at the University of Minnesota. Until recently, he also was directly responsible for the University of Minnesota Sleep Centre. 

Dr. Bijwadia earned his medical degree and did his internship and residency at Mumbai University. He moved to the U.S. in 1988, where he did his internship and residency at Nassau University Medical Centre at the State University of New York, leading to the position of Chief Resident Internal Medicine in 1991.  From 1992 to 1994, Dr. Bijwadia completed his Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Medicine at the University of Southern California.  He holds board certification in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases, and Sleep Medicine. 

Because of his strong interest in commercial and business matters, he has served in administrative and leadership roles at HealthPartners Medical Group.  He has completed the executive course at the Physician Leadership College at St. Thomas University, Opus College of Business in Minneapolis, MN. He is also currently enrolled in the American Health Insurance Plans and Kellogg School of Business. 

“We are very proud to have been able to gain Dr. Bijwadia as SomnoMed’s first Chief Medical Officer. His experience and reputation in sleep and pulmonary medicine is exceptional. Dr. Bijwadia will initially focus on the medical educational program for physicians in the US to improve the understanding of the clinical research results, efficacy and advantages of oral appliance therapy generally and the SomnoDent® treatment in particular. He will also focus on the opportunities now being offered to test the efficacy of the SomnoDent® treatment on individual patients through the use of the MATRx test, which is being installed in sleep laboratories across the US and recruit members for our Medical Advisory Board to be formed over the next six months,” said Dr. Peter Neustadt, Executive Chairman of SomnoMed. 

“Dr. Bijwadia will also be involved in directing our future clinical research, regulatory matters and product development in our global business,” said Dr. Neustadt. 

SomnoMed Inc. new President Dr. Kien Nguyen commented, “The appointment of Dr. Bijwadia as Chief Medical Officer is a very important element in the roll out of our medical initiative, which has commenced in the US. It completes the recruitment of our medical executive team, which will be instrumental to broaden the use of oral appliance therapy for the treatment of obstructive sleep-breathing conditions, bring SomnoDent® and our sleep medicine educated dental network into the practices of medical specialists and to the attention of health insurers, leading to accelerated growth for our company in the years ahead”. 

About SomnoMed Limited 

SomnoMed is a public company providing diagnostic and treatment solutions for Sleep-related Breathing Disorders including obstructive sleep apnea, snoring and bruxism.  SomnoMed was commercialized on the basis of extensive clinical research. Supporting independent clinical research, continuous innovation and instituting medical manufacturing standards has resulted in SomnoDent® becoming the state-of-the-art and clinically proven medical oral appliance therapy for obstructive sleep apnea. SomnoDent® is the most comfortable and effective design and treatment solution for over 100,000 patients in 22 countries.