PEERClinic

For Back Pain and Spine Surgery

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We are a small practice located in the heart of Fairfax, Virginia. We offer easy access, exceptional service, and state-of-the art spine care. Compassionate, personalized care is provided directly by a highly qualified orthopedic spine surgeon. Patient Experience and End Results (PEER) Clinic, as the name implies, will truly engage people seeking care for back issues with personalized care that exceeds the highest standards of trusted science and clinical guidelines.

In our care, you will experience unprecedented engagement at every step of the process. You have the option of accessing a video recording of your visit online or on our iOS and Android apps. These recordings become part of your Personal Health Record (PHR), which also includes Patient Reported Outcome scores, transcripts of the encounter, diagnoses, recommendations and prescriptions.

Meet The Team


Atiyya H. Mughal

Atiyya H. Mughal MD, MS

I enjoy taking care of people in need. Nothing satisfies me more than seeing a smile on a patients face when they leave after receiving care from me. The care I provide is personal to each unique patient centered to their needs. Our small practice gives me the opportunity to do just that.

My education brings the best I can offer my patients. My unique background in obtaining education in different countries has given me perspective of how medicine is practiced in different places, and I bring this experience to caring for my patients.

Sohail K. Mirza

Sohail K. Mirza MD, MPH

I enjoy getting to know my patients and doing my very best to help them. My professional career has been devoted to caring for patients with complex spine problems and doing research on outcomes experienced by patients. I have learned to listen to patients carefully and do my best to help them choose the best treatment that will lead to the best outcome, supported by strong science. I also strive to be sincerely caring and supportive.

Over the past ten years, I led efforts to integrate measurement of Patient Reported Outcomes into high quality, efficient clinical practice models. Widespread use of electronic medical records and personal communication devices now offer innovative tools to achieve this goal. I have had a successful academic career, but rather than pursue further academic advancement, I am ready to try to build an innovative model of clinical practice that maximizes use of technology to engage and help patients with back pain and other spine problems.

I have held leadership positions at Dartmouth, the University of Washington, and multiple professional societies including the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the North American Spine Society. I have authored over 100 scientific articles and book chapters, and have been an invited lecturer at many national and international scientific meetings. My most recent professional positions were Medical Director of the Center for Surgical Innovation, Professor of Orthopedics at Geisel and The Dartmouth Institute, and attending spine surgeon at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. I led the Orthopedics department at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth from 2008 to 2015. Under my leadership, we designed and implemented innovations such as routine outcomes measurement and use shared decision-making, while also reducing cost, improving efficiency, and improving patient experience through standardization of care and use of information technology. Under my leadership, the department developed high-value, efficient clinical care paths by leveraging electronic medical records, standardizing care around evidence base guidelines, and implementing integrated teambased care delivery. I have also led efforts to implement progressive reforms such as pay-forperformance and episode-based payment models. I moved to Dartmouth in 2008 from the University of Washington in Seattle, where I was professor in the departments of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine and in Neurological Surgery, and held the endowed chair for Spine End Results Research, and served as Director of Spine Education and Director of Spine Trauma Research. I was an attending surgeon at Harborview Medical Center, Seattle Children's Hospital, University of Washington Medical Center, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

Several professional honors have been awarded to me, including the American Orthopaedic Association's (AOA) prestigious North American Traveling Fellowship (NATF) in 1997 and American- British-Canadian Exchange (ABC) Fellowship in 2003. The NATF is awarded every other year to three highly selected US orthopedic surgeons early in their careers. The ABC is awarded every other year to academically successful surgeons in the participating countries. Only a few orthopedic surgeons have been selected for both honors by the AOA. At Harborview Medical Center I received the Clinical Service Excellence Award. I also received a Cervical Spine Research Society research award and the University of Washington Laurnen Award for Spine Research. I was Principal Investigator on an NIH patientoriented research career development award (Safety of Lumbar Fusion Surgery for Chronic Back Pain) and an Investigator on a NIAMS Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center.

After graduation with a bachelor's degree in physics from Colorado College in 1985, I received my medical degree from the University of Colorado, School of Medicine in 1989, both with honors. I completed residency at the University of Washington in 1994 and the Daniel E. Hogan fellowship in spinal surgery at Harvard Medical School in 1995. I received a Master in Public Health at the University of Washington in 2005.