Atkinson, Dr. Holly
ABOUT
TOPICS
TESTIMONIALS
About Dr. Holly Atkinson
Dr. Atkinson, a well-known media personality and a gifted speaker, has engaged audiences on achieving wellness for more than 20 years. She is the senior on-air Medical Correspondent and Chief Medical Editor of HealthiNation, the leading digital consumer health video network. Dr. Atkinson is also Assistant Professor 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. With degrees in both medicine and journalism, she possesses a unique blend of experience and skill—medical expertise, media savvy and business acumen. Dr. Atkinson has worked in print, broadcast television and web-based technologies for both consumers and medical professionals and has extensive international business experience.
Dr. Atkinson has a broad range of experience as a medical correspondent, including assignments with NBC’s Today show, The CBS Morning News, Lifetime Medical Television, and the PBS health show BodyWatch, having jump started her career in TV as a researcher for Walter Cronkite’s Universe Show on CBS. For more than 10 years, Dr. Atkinson worked as Senior Vice President for Lifetime Medical Television. Then, as an entrepreneur, she helped to found and ultimately became President and CEO of Reuters Health Information, Inc., a leading international health news agency. She has recently been a frequent guest on ABC News Now.
Dr. Atkinson is an accomplished author, having written the best-selling book Women and Fatigue. She wrote a regular health column for New Woman magazine and feature pieces for The South Beach Diet Newsletter. Dr. Atkinson has been a resident physician on Dr.Weil.com and iVillageHealth.com, both leading web sites.
Dr. Atkinson was a member of the original team that launched Journal Watch, a monthly summary of important medical research findings developed for practicing physicians by Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), publisher of The New England Journal of Medicine. After writing for Journal Watch 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. Upon leaving HealthNews, she was founding Medical Editor-in-Chief of Everydayhealth.com, one of the leading health websites, and a regular columnist for the site.
Dr. Atkinson devotes considerable time to a number of not-for-profit organizations and charities. She is Past President of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its effort to eradicate landmines. In 1995, Dr. Atkinson conducted a medical mission to Bosnia where she documented the health effects of landmines on civilians. She has also served on the boards of Legal Momentum, the nation’s oldest and largest women’s civil rights organization; the American Heart Association; and the Society for Women’s Health Research.
She has received the National Council of Women’s Young Achievers Award; the Society for Women’s Health Research’s Communications Achievement Award in Women’s Health, presented by then first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton; the Physicians for Human Rights’ Health and Human Rights Award; and the Unitarian Universalist’s UN Award for Human Rights.
Dr. Atkinson has a MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and a MS degree in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Colgate University with a BS in Biology. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Medical Women’s Association
The Five Keys of Optimal Health
“Good Health” doesn’t just consist of the lack of illness and being in good physical shape. Optimal health is only achieved when an individual maximizes five critical dimensions in her or his life. Dr. Atkinson explores these five dimensions of optimal well being, offering practical advice from recent medical research mixed with pearls of wisdom handed down through the ages for improving one’s emotional, social, intellectual, physical and spiritual well being. “The Five Keys” is down-to-earth, warm, funny, and inspirational with loads of take home messages for both sexes and all ages.
Medicine and The Media
With over 15 years of experience as a medical journalist, Dr. Holly Atkinson gives a fascinating talk on medicine and the media. She explores the challenges that consumers face today in sorting through the glut of medical information reported by the nation’s press. One week the headlines rave about the benefits of antioxidant vitamins or calcium; the next week they’re panned. Does a low-fat diet protect you against disease or not? So, how much exercise do you really need? Should menopausal women ever take hormones? Dr. Atkinson gives practical tips on how to read the medical news and sort through the clutter, and in the process, gives answers to many of burning questions that the health conscious audience is dying to ask.
Best Medical Treatments for Women
For decades, the medical establishment ignored many diseases of women, conducted medical experiments with only male subjects and virtually failed to recognize the role of gender in healthcare. In this speech, Dr. Atkinson brings the audience up to date on the latest in women’s health: what’s hot, what’s not, what’s controversial and what questions women need to ask their doctors. In the question and answer period that follows, she fields questions about the best medical treatments for women; for heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, weight loss, menopause and more. Not to be missed!
Consumer Health Care Trends and the Internet
The consumer revolution continues to alter the healthcare landscape. And of course, it is now fueled by the power of the Internet. Having worked in the Internet space since 1993, Dr. Atkinson explores the current consumer healthcare trends, especially those driven by the worldwide web. The Web is empowering patients today in a way that is causing radical shifts in how healthcare is practiced and delivered. Information, education, chat forums, blogs, support groups, drugs on line, eprescribing, direct-to-consumer lab and genetic testing, report card medicine—all of this instantaneously at your fingertips. In this speech, Dr. Atkinson explores the world of health on the web and explains how it is revolutionizing healthcare. She delivers this speech for both a consumer and a business audience to rave reviews.
Testimonials
“You did a fabulous job on Saturday and I’ve received so many compliments on your keynote address. A couple of people also approached me after the event inquiring for more information about you as they have events coming up!”
– Michelle Vanderburg, Presbyterian Healthcare System
“We are still receiving rave reviews about your presentation! The women really appreciated your accessibility, your humor and your candor.”
– Betsy Hatfield, Boca Raton Community Hospital Foundation
“I’ve’ received countless messages, voice and e-mail, about Thursday evening’s presentation. You were more than wonderful.”
– Debbie Janis, Dayton Heart Hospital Foundation
“It was awesome. Dr. Atkinson was certainly the right choice for our group — she was intelligent, entertaining, and very personable. Everyone enjoyed meeting her, working with her and becoming more educated on women’s health issues.”
– Jamie Pickrell, Experience Events, Cornelius
“Everyone here is still talking about how lovely, polished and wonderful you are. We are so lucky to have had you! Your message hit home to our community.”
– Catherine Hagan, Carilion Health System