Case Study

Client: CentraSight

VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies is a Silicon Valley medical device company that makes a telescope implant. The device is an integral part of a treatment program for macular degeneration called CentraSight. It literally restores sight to the blind. The company needed a PR plan to drive patients to doctors, hospitals and universities around the country that were among the first to offer this groundbreaking surgical treatment.  

What is CentraSight and what made it difficult to market?

CentraSight is a treatment program for age-related macular degeneration developed by VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies. At its center is a telescope implant, a device small enough to fit in the palm of your hand that magnifies images onto healthy areas of the retina, restoring functional vision to patients who had lost it. The treatment was groundbreaking, but it came with a communications challenge: the most dramatic results didn’t appear immediately after surgery. Patients completed months of post-op therapy to train their eyes to see with the implant before the full impact became clear. That delayed payoff made it harder to tell a compelling story, and telling a compelling story was exactly what was needed to drive patients to the doctors and hospitals offering the procedure.

How did Pushkin PR approach the CentraSight public relations campaign?

We started where we always do – with research. Stakeholder interviews and in-depth industry analysis helped us understand the specific challenges and opportunities facing CentraSight and the narrow segment of patients who might be eligible for the surgery. From there, we built a tailored strategy focused on 50 priority markets the client needed to penetrate, recognizing that local media coverage — not national splashes — was what would actually move prospective patients to pick up the phone. Working collaboratively with VisionCare and local doctors, we developed a comprehensive PR toolkit to help provider teams tell the CentraSight story in their own markets. We media-trained both the doctors and their patients, then pitched stories to local and regional outlets and coordinated interviews. In some cases, we brought journalists directly into the operating room to witness the procedure firsthand. Our 10-step communications plan covered everything from key message development and press releases to patient education event templates, articles for medical and patient advocacy audiences, social media channels targeting caregivers, and patient bios and videos for the CentraSight website.

Why did Pushkin PR focus on local media instead of national coverage?

Every client’s public relations campaign is personalized. For CentraSight, the goal was to drive eligible patients to specific local doctors who offered the implant. A story in a patient’s hometown paper, featuring a doctor they could actually see and a patient whose experience they could relate to, was far more likely to prompt action than a segment on a national morning show. We prioritized reach where it mattered most: in the 50 markets where CentraSight providers were ready to see patients.

How did Pushkin PR make the CentraSight story resonate with patients?

We set a clear editorial standard for ourselves: the story had to be compelling enough that if your mother had macular degeneration and came across it, she would want that doctor to help her. That meant centering real patients, people whose worlds had literally gone dark, and giving them the platform and preparation to share their experiences authentically. We introduced the first CentraSight patient in each market to local media, coordinated their interviews, and made sure the human story was always at the center of the coverage.

What results did the CentraSight media relations campaign produce?

The campaign secured more than 100 positive media placements across 33 regional markets — including Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, St. Louis, Austin, Dallas, Seattle, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. Coverage included patient stories like Jean Arp’s experience with the telescope implant in the Herald Whig and Robert Harris becoming the first patient in North Carolina to receive the surgery in Port City Daily, exactly the kind of local, human-centered storytelling that moved prospective patients to act. Those placements translated directly into hundreds of calls and website visits from people exploring the treatment. For a procedure with a narrow eligible population and a months-long results timeline, that level of patient conversion was a meaningful outcome and a testament to what a well-executed local media strategy can accomplish.