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About
Every SART clinic report carries a verifying physician. For CCRM Virginia, LLC — the registration that covers this Vienna office — that signature is Mark Payson’s. He is the medical director of the practice he built, which means the outcome tables patients read before booking are the ones he is accountable for.
He came to civilian fertility care from military medicine. Payson directed the IVF program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center until 2012, ended his service as a Navy Commander, spent time in private practice in the Washington area, and then founded CCRM Fertility of Northern Virginia with Dr. William Schoolcraft, who started CCRM in Colorado in 1987. He has now practiced 19 years, holds clinic at both the Vienna main center and CCRM’s Rockville office across the line in Maryland, and works with patients to sort out why conception has not happened before settling on a protocol.
His clinical range covers the standard ART pathway plus the protocols that sit outside it. His profile names extensive experience with multiple IVF approaches, including natural cycle IVF, the minimally medicated pathway some patients choose or need. He is listed as accepting new patients.
Clinical Expertise
- IVF protocol selection: stimulation design from assessment to transfer, with experience across conventional, modified and low-medication approaches
- Natural cycle IVF: cycles run with little or no gonadotropin stimulation, for patients who cannot or prefer not to take high medication doses
- Multifactorial infertility: evaluation of the combined tubal, uterine, endocrine and male factors that make a case resistant to a single fix
- Program governance: sets and signs the cycle reporting that flows to SART and the CDC for the Virginia registration, including lab and data practice standards
- Program building: created the Northern Virginia office inside a national network and staffed its physician and nursing team
Why Choose Dr. Mark Payson
He signs the data. The 2023 Virginia report this page draws on — 49.6% live birth per intended egg retrieval under 35, 41.0% at 35-37 — was verified by Payson in his role as medical director. Patients comparing clinics usually cannot tell who stands behind a number; here you can.
Nineteen years, including the military IVF program. Running Walter Reed’s IVF program until 2012 meant a patient population with relocated families, frequent moves and limited continuity — the same logistics problem many Washington-area patients have now.
He built this office. Founding a practice with CCRM’s William Schoolcraft is a different job from inheriting one: the physicians, the nursing structure and the laboratory pathway were chosen rather than inherited.
Range beyond the standard protocol. Natural cycle IVF is a named part of his practice, which matters for patients who have had a rough response to stimulation before.
Professional Affiliations
Medical Director of CCRM Fertility of Northern Virginia, the Virginia practice registered with SART as CCRM Virginia, LLC (clinic ID 2000064), and licensed obstetrician-gynecologist fellowship-trained in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the National Institutes of Health. He practices in Virginia and Maryland, holding clinic at Vienna and Rockville. Recognition in the reviewed material is limited to physician listings — Washingtonian Magazine Top Doctors, Castle Connolly Top Doctor and Northern Virginia Magazine Top Doctors — and no board certification statement appears there, so verify current certification status directly if it is a deciding factor.
Suitable For
- Patients planning a full IVF cycle who want the practice’s medical director setting the protocol
- Anyone asking about natural cycle IVF or a lighter stimulation plan after a difficult previous cycle
- Complex or long-standing infertility where several causes overlap
- Patients who check outcome data themselves, and want to know which physician verified the SART report
- Washington-area patients on either side of the Potomac, since he holds clinic days at Rockville as well as Vienna