Specializing in Law Firms, Healthcare, Nonprofit, and Crisis Communication
Strive Health had built something the kidney care industry desperately needed – a value-based model that partnered with health systems and physicians to transform how chronic kidney disease is managed. But in a competitive healthcare landscape, a good model isn’t enough. You have to be known for it. Pushkin PR built the brand awareness campaign that put Strive in front of the providers, payers, and partners who needed to know they existed.
What does Strive Health do and why did it need a PR campaign?
Strive Health is a Denver-based startup focused on transforming kidney care delivery. By partnering with health systems and physicians across multiple states, Strive operates on a value-based care model — one that prioritizes better patient outcomes over volume of services billed. Chronic kidney disease affects more than 37 million Americans, yet care has historically been fragmented and reactive. Strive was built to change that. To do so, the company needed strategic communications support to build brand awareness, generate positive press, and establish its leadership as credible voices in a crowded and complex space.
Within the first six months, Pushkin PR generated more than 1,000 media mentions for Strive Health — including positive placements in top-priority outlets such as Healio, Becker’s Hospital Review, Med City News, Kidney News, Crain’s Chicago Business, DBusiness, and Health Innovations. The coverage spanned clinical trade publications, regional business media, and national health IT outlets — reaching the providers, investors, and health system partners Strive needed to influence.
How does PR help a healthcare startup compete in a crowded market?
In healthcare, credibility is currency. A startup entering a space dominated by established health systems and large payers needs more than a good pitch, it needs third-party validation from the publications and voices its target audience already trusts. For Strive Health, a sustained media relations campaign did exactly that, generating consistent coverage across the outlets that nephrology professionals and healthcare investors read.
Yes, and for a company like Strive, executive visibility was a key part of the strategy. Coverage like Becker’s Hospital Review naming Strive’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shika Pappoe to its Women Power Players in Health IT list elevated Strive’s credibility as a company led by serious, respected clinical minds — which matters enormously when you’re asking health systems and payers to rethink how they deliver care.
Healthcare is a relationship-driven industry with long sales cycles and high stakes decision-making. A provider or health system considering a new care partnership needs to feel confident in who they’re working with before any conversation gets serious. Consistent, positive media coverage accelerates that trust-building — giving Strive Health a visible, credible presence in the market long before a formal sales conversation begins. The 1,000+ media mentions Pushkin PR generated in the first six months laid that foundation.