News Release May 3, 2007

Jagdeep Bijwadia, M.D., to lead HealthPartners Department of Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical Care Medicine

May 3, 2007

Bloomington, Minn., - One of the Twin Cities widely recognized board-certified sleep health physicians has been named the department head for HealthPartners Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Jagdeep Bijwadia, a pulmonologist, joined the HealthPartners Medical Group in 2004 and has been serving as medical director of the HealthPartners Sleep Health Center, a service of Regions Hospital. Under his medical leadership, Regions treated more than 2,000 sleep health patients in 2006 (a ten-fold increase since the service was first offered in 2003) and opened a new sleep center last June.

In his new role, Dr. Bijwadia will oversee a team of leading pulmonologists and critical care physicians who treat patients with a variety of complex lung-related problems, critical illnesses and sleep-related health issues. Patients are seen at the new HealthPartners Sleep Health Center in Maplewood; the HealthPartners Specialty Center and Regions Hospital in St. Paul; and the HealthPartners Parkway Clinic and North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale. In the last year, the department consisting of 11 physicians, a physician assistant and two nurse practitioners managed 15,000 patient encounters. Dr. Bijwadia's focus will include both the clinical practice and the day-to-day operations of the department. He is also responsible for patient satisfaction and quality outcomes and the professional development and recruitment of staff and physicians.

"Dr. Bijwadia is well known for his expertise in sleep health medicine, but more importantly, he is focused on the care and experience of our patients and their individual needs. We are happy to have a patient-centered physician lead the department," said Gretchen Leiterman, vice president, Regions Hospital.

Dr. Bijwadia attended medical school at Mumbai University in Mumbai, India. He completed his residency at Nassau University Medical Center, State University of New York and his Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at the University of Southern California.Prior to joining the HealthPartners Medical Group, he was at the Luther Midelfort Clinic/Mayo Health System in Eau Claire, Wis. He is also an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Medicine, Division of Pulmonary/Allergy/Critical Care.

Regions Hospital is a Level I Trauma Center and teaching hospital serving Minnesota and western Wisconsin for more than 130 years. Regions is a private, non-profit hospital providing outstanding care in womens health, heart, cancer, surgery, orthopaedics, neurosciences, burn, emergency care and more. Regions is part of the HealthPartners family of care. Additional information is available at regionshospital.com.