About Mike Hittle, PhD, Founder | Palo Alto Health Labs

Who Mike is

Mike Hittle is an epidemiologist and engineer who builds and evaluates digital health systems. His focus is wearables, mobile health, neurology (especially multiple sclerosis) and health AI. He founded Palo Alto Health Labs in Palo Alto, California, where he works as the technical and scientific counterpart for digital health companies.

Education

PhD, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Stanford University School of Medicine — completed September 21, 2026. Dissertation: Digital epidemiology of multiple sclerosis across scales: geography, environment and biomarker discovery, Stanford Digital Repository, 2026 (doi:10.25740/wk803zs7890).
BS, Human Biology with Honors (Biomedical Science and Biocomputation), Stanford University — 2016–2020.

Selected work

Current role — postdoctoral researcher in the Ramayya Lab, Stanford Neurosurgery, developing a wearable-based neurological exam for the ICU.
CardinalKit — founder of an open-source, standards-based platform for regulated mobile health apps (Aalami, Hittle et al., JAMIA Open, 2023).
mHealth Platform 2.0 (Stanford Medicine) — co-architect.
PHENOMS eCOA platform (neurology) — creator, founder and platform lead.
Teaching — cofounder and co-director of Stanford CS342 “Building for Digital Health”; co-instructor of EPI 270 “Digital Health.”

Selected publications

Hittle M, Culpepper WJ, Langer-Gould A, et al. Population-Based Estimates for the Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis in the United States by Race, Ethnicity, Age, Sex, and Geographic Region. JAMA Neurology. 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.1135
Aalami O, Hittle M, Ravi V, et al. CardinalKit: open-source standards-based, interoperable mobile development platform to help translate the promise of digital health. JAMIA Open. 2023;6(3):ooad044. doi:10.1093/jamiaopen/ooad044
Lautman Z, Gravellier L, Malik S, Hittle M, Haddad F, Ræder H, Snyder MP. Longitudinal Changes in Wearable-Captured Physiology Before Sudden Cardiac Death. JACC: Case Reports. 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jaccas.2026.110397
Nasserie T, Hittle M, Goodman SN. Assessment of the Frequency and Variety of Persistent Symptoms Among Patients With COVID-19: A Systematic Review. JAMA Network Open. 2021;4(5):e2111417. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.11417
Kalinowski A, Cutter G, Bozinov N, Hinman JA, Hittle M, Motl R, Odden M, Nelson LM. The timed 25-foot walk in a large cohort of multiple sclerosis patients. Multiple Sclerosis Journal. 2021. doi:10.1177/13524585211017013
Holsteen KK, Hittle M, Barad M, Nelson LM. Development and Internal Validation of a Multivariable Prediction Model for Individual Episodic Migraine Attacks Based on Daily Trigger Exposures. Headache. 2020. doi:10.1111/head.13960
Roomkham S, Hittle M, Cheung J, Lovell D, Mignot E, Perrin D. Sleep monitoring with the Apple Watch: comparison to a clinically validated actigraph. F1000Research. 2019. doi:10.12688/f1000research.19020.1
Lee BY, Ordovas JM, … Hittle M, … Research gaps and opportunities in precision nutrition: an NIH workshop report. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqac237

Full list on Google Scholar (h-index 10, 1,636 citations as of October 2026) and ORCID 0000-0002-4934-2453.

Profiles

Work with Mike

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