Most people know Dr. Carolyn Lam as one of the world's foremost authorities on heart failure. She has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed publications, led landmark global clinical trials, and co-founded Us2.ai to bring AI-powered echocardiography to physicians worldwide. What fewer people know is that in late 2024, she walked into a ballroom studio in Honolulu thinking she would try a single dance for laughs, and that nobody would know.
Now she competes internationally across nine dance styles. In February 2026, she placed first in American Rhythm and American Smooth at the Crown Cup Dubai, one of ballroom's most prestigious international competitions.
"I will never forget walking into Aloha Ballroom thinking I would just try a single dance. What I didn't expect was how completely it would captivate me. And how it would so positively transform the rest of my life."
The philosophy behind the physician
MidWeek Hawai'i profiles Dr. Lam not merely as an innovator or a clinician, but as a whole person, one whose commitment to excellence in medicine is mirrored by her discipline on the dance floor. For the Us2.ai team, the piece captures something we believe deeply: better diagnostics don't just extend life, they protect the quality of it.
"It's not just about technique and trophies," she told MidWeek. "It's about feeling and belonging." That same conviction drives the work at Us2.ai, that heart health is not a clinical abstraction, but something deeply human, lived in the body every day.
Movement as medicine
As a cardiologist specialising in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, Dr. Lam has spent her career arguing that the medical community must see patients as whole people. Her philosophy extends beyond the clinic: movement, joy, and rhythm are not luxuries. They are physiological necessities.
The science backs her up. Regular physical activity reduces cardiovascular risk, improves cardiac function, and has measurable effects on quality of life outcomes, the very metrics Us2.ai's AI platform helps clinicians track with greater precision and at greater scale than ever before.
"Whatever that looks like for you, find it. Protect it. Let it make you better at everything else you do. It has certainly done that for me."
A co-founder who embodies the mission
At Us2.ai, we use artificial intelligence to automate the analysis of echocardiograms, bringing faster, more accurate heart disease detection to clinicians and patients around the world. Our co-founder's story is a reminder of why that mission matters: because behind every echocardiogram is a person who deserves to live fully.
We are proud of Dr. Lam's recognition in MidWeek Hawai'i, not just for what it says about her, but for what it says about the kind of medicine we believe in.