Dr. Atkinson is medical editor-in-chief of one of the leading health websites on the Internet, and the regular columnist for the popular site. She is also Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine and Co-Director of the Advancing Idealism in Medicine Program at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Further, she consults with a number of healthcare companies, typically focused on medical information and the internet.
Dr. Atkinson brings a unique blend of experience and skill to her work; she has business acumen, media savvy, editorial proficiency, and medical expertise. She has degrees in both medicine and journalism, and broad international business experience. She has worked in print, broadcast television and web-based technologies for both the medical professional and consumer audiences.
Dr. Atkinson was President of iVillageHealth.com, the health channel of the popular women's website iVillage.com, where she led a redesign of the site. Before iVillage, Dr. Atkinson was a founder as well as President and CEO of Reuters Health Information, Inc. Within 3 years of taking the helm, she had led the news company to profitability and international recognition. Prior to joining Reuters, Atkinson was at Lifetime Medical Television for 10 years where she oversaw, as Senior Vice President of Programming, the continuing medical education programming that aired on the network. Her TV career was launched in 1981, when Walter Cronkite hired her to be a researcher on his show, Walter Cronkite's Universe Show.
Dr. Atkinson was a member of the original team who launched JournalWatch, a monthly summary of important medical research findings developed for the practicing physician by Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine. The first issue of JournalWatch was launched over 19 year ago, and today, it has grown into several subspecialty newsletters widely distributed throughout the US and abroad. After writing for JournalWatch for seven years, the MMS asked her to help launch a consumer health newsletter, HealthNews. She became the founding editor-in-chief, and remained at the helm of the newsletter for 12 years, until August 2006.