A USA Today feature on Sakif Shamim, leader of the Labaid Group, has put Bangladesh’s healthcare progress in the spotlight and shown how local care can reach a global audience. Shamim is the managing director of the Labaid Cancer Hospital and Super Specialty Centre and the deputy managing director of the wider Labaid Group. Under his leadership the group now runs six specialised hospitals, forty five diagnostic centres, a medical college, pharma operations and other services and it employs more than twelve thousand people. Mr Shamim has pushed the group to use new tools so patients get faster and smarter care. His team built LifePlus Bangladesh, a health tech platform with over three hundred thousand active users, and launched Labaid GPT, a generative AI system meant to offer second opinions for doctors and patients. The group is also using augmented reality and virtual reality through Virtuecare AI to train staff and explain care to patients. Leaders say these steps make care more modern and easier to use for many people. Labaid has big plans to expand and serve more patients across the country. The group plans a seven hundred fifty bed super speciality hospital in Dhaka with a planned investment of two hundred and fifty million dollars and aims to open thirty cancer centres across Bangladesh in the next five to seven years. Officials say this work will help reduce the need for patients to travel abroad for cancer care and other complex treatment and will also draw patients from nearby countries seeking good care at home. To support growth Labaid is preparing to list on stock markets in Singapore and Hong Kong as well as in Bangladesh, and it has formed partnerships with institutions such as Singapore General Hospital and Harvard Medical School to boost skills and quality. Shamim describes Labaid as a platform for change where stronger hospitals, better technology and steady training can widen access to care. He says world class treatment should be within reach and not just a luxury, and the group aims to serve seven to eight million patients a year once key projects are in place. The plan also focuses on making advanced care more affordable by training local staff, improving systems and using digital tools that work on simple phones and low bandwidth. Healthcare leaders say the USA Today profile will help draw attention, partnerships and investment that can speed new projects while showing how local health firms can meet global standards. If Labaid meets its targets the result could be clearer access to care for many families, more trained health workers, and a stronger health sector that stands well beside its global peers. This work promises lasting benefits for patients nationwide.
