Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Atkinson attended the University of Pennsylvania where he received his B.S. degree in 1973 and was an All American in swimming. He went on to obtain his M.D. degree from Thomas Jefferson Medical College, and complete a one-year surgical internship at Yale University Medical Center. After finishing a four-year orthopedic residency at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, Dr. Atkinson did a hand fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Since then, Dr. Atkinson has built a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable orthopedic hand surgeons in the field today. He has presented papers at meetings for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, Eastern Orthopedic Association, and American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, as well as several hospitals and colleges, including Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, China and Toho University in Tokyo. Dr. Atkinson has also had numerous articles published in various orthopedic journals, including the Journal of Hand Surgery, Orthopedic Review and Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.