- What an EIM Actually Is
- From a 2012 Certification to a Specialty Credential
- Who Can Earn the Credential
- How the Course and Quizzes Are Built
- The Five Curriculum Areas
- Cost, Credit and Access Window
- EIM Compared With ACSM-EP
- Where the Credential Fits in Practice
- Sequencing Your Preparation
- What Is Not Publicly Confirmed
- Frequently Asked Questions
- EIM means Exercise is Medicine Certification, administered by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) as an educational specialty credential.
- Credential eligibility requires a qualifying bachelor's degree, a base fitness certification, and at least 80% on every online exam.
- The course costs USD 195 for ACSM members and USD 379 for nonmembers, and awards 15 CECs.
- Five curriculum areas run from Health Care Basics through the Coach Approach to behavior change.
What an EIM Actually Is
EIM, short for Exercise is Medicine Certification, is an ACSM program that prepares exercise professionals to work alongside the health care system. The current official offering is the ACSM Exercise is Medicine Credential, and ACSM positions it as an educational specialty program rather than an entry-level fitness certification. If you are asking "what is a EIM?" because you saw the letters on a trainer's bio or a job posting, this is the answer: a specialty credential about connecting clinical care and community exercise, not a stand-alone license to practice and not a replacement for a base certification.
The acronym is shared by other, unrelated credentials in other fields. This article covers only the ACSM Exercise is Medicine pathway. If you want a shorter orientation to the term itself, see our explainers on what EIM is, what EIM stands for and the meaning of EIM.
From a 2012 Certification to a Specialty Credential
ACSM's own history of the program records that the original certification launched in 2012. In 2021 it was redesigned as a specialty credential and educational certificate, and a refreshed asynchronous course launched in June 2022. ACSM describes the refreshed course as 17 sections organized into five modules, built around common chronic medical conditions and placing facilitating behavior change before special settings.
This history explains why older search results look contradictory. You will still find pages describing "Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3" credentials, a five-CEC application form and a "101-EIM" exam code. Those are legacy search intents. The older level-based criteria are not the rules for the current 15-CEC course pathway, and the legacy application form's original URL now redirects to the EIM overview page. When a third-party site cites levels, treat it as outdated until ACSM confirms otherwise.
Who Can Earn the Credential
There is an important distinction between enrolling in the course and earning the credential. The course itself has no prerequisites, so anyone can purchase it. The credential has requirements, and ACSM's current page lists them:
- At least a B.S. or B.A. in exercise science, exercise physiology or kinesiology.
- ACSM certification, or another fitness certification that is NCCA-accredited or ISO/IEC 17024 accredited.
- Completion of every EIM course module.
- A score of at least 80% on every online examination, not an overall average.
The fourth item matters most for planning. A strong result on one quiz cannot offset a weak result on another, because the threshold applies to each one. Participants who pass receive an email invitation to complete the credential application. For a fuller walkthrough of eligibility, see EIM requirements, and for the scoring rule in detail, see the EIM passing score guide.
How the Course and Quizzes Are Built
The course is delivered through ACSM Online Learning on the Path LMS platform. It is asynchronous, so there is no scheduled sitting like a proctored test center exam. Public catalog metadata lists 14 assessment quizzes with these published question counts:
| Quiz topic | Published questions |
|---|---|
| Health Care Basics | 25 |
| Hypertension | 6 |
| Dyslipidemia | 10 |
| Obesity | 18 |
| Metabolic Syndrome | 9 |
| NAFLD | 7 |
| Prediabetes / Type 2 Diabetes | 26 |
| Osteoarthritis | 16 |
| Low-back Pain | 11 |
| Cancer | 9 |
| Older Adults | 15 |
| Behavior Change | 25 |
| Small Group Programs | 13 |
| Technology / Virtual Training | 13 |
These counts add up to 203 questions. That is a calculated total across separate quizzes, not a single 203-question final exam, and a six-question course evaluation is excluded from it. The public listing may also be incomplete, since an earlier catalog description referred to 42 course items. Treat the quiz table as a map of emphasis, not an exhaustive inventory.
The weight of each quiz tells you something practical. Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes (26 questions), Health Care Basics (25) and Behavior Change (25) carry the most published questions, while Hypertension (6) and NAFLD (7) carry the fewest. Since every score must reach 80%, however, a short quiz is not a free pass. Six questions leave little room for error.
For difficulty and outcome questions, we cover these separately in how hard the EIM exam is and what is known about EIM pass rates. No official pass rate has been verified, so be skeptical of any site quoting one.
The Five Curriculum Areas
The five areas below follow the wording and order of ACSM's public curriculum. They are unweighted preparation topics, not an official exam blueprint with percentage weights. No highest-weighted area has been verified.
Domain 1: Health Care Basics
The foundation for working with patients and referring clinicians. Published subtopics include:
- Models of Care and Exercise is Medicine
- Terminology, Documentation and Communication
- Privacy/HIPAA and Scope of Practice
Expect applied judgment here: what you may document, what you may share, and where your role ends and a clinician's begins.
Domain 2: Exercise Prescription for Common Medical Conditions
The largest block by topic count. Published subtopics include:
- Hypertension and Dyslipidemia
- Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome and NAFLD
- Pre-diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes
- Osteoarthritis and Low Back Pain
- Introduction to Cancer
Public learning objectives also point to medication effects and referral decisions, so study how common medications change exercise responses and when a client needs clinician input before progressing.
Domain 3: Exercise Prescription for Older Adults
ACSM publishes this as a single heading without nested subtopics, so no additional subheadings should be assumed. Anchor your study to the Older Adults quiz (15 published questions).
Domain 4: Exercise Prescription in Special Settings
Published subtopics include:
- Facilitating Small Group Medical Fitness Programs
- Virtual Training/Technology
This area tests program delivery rather than a single disease, so expect questions about structuring groups and using technology responsibly.
Domain 5: Facilitating Behavior Change - The Coach Approach
Also published as a single heading. Public objectives reference motivational interviewing and exercise adherence, and the Behavior Change quiz has 25 published questions, among the largest.
For a deeper treatment of each area, read the full EIM domains guide.
Cost, Credit and Access Window
Several numbers circulate about this program, and they measure different things. Keeping them separate prevents costly misunderstandings:
| Item | What is published |
|---|---|
| Course fee, ACSM members | USD 195 |
| Course fee, nonmembers | USD 379 |
| Continuing education credit | 15 CECs awarded by the course |
| Access window | 365 days from purchase to complete the course |
| Separate application or exam fee | Not verified |
The 15 CECs are educational credit, not an exam timer and not an EIM renewal requirement. The 365 days is access time, not exam duration and not credential validity. A common error is reading any of these as a countdown or as a renewal rule. For a full breakdown of what you will likely spend, see EIM certification cost.
EIM Compared With ACSM-EP
Candidates often ask whether EIM competes with ACSM's Exercise Physiologist certification. They are different pathways serving different purposes, and the comparison below describes pathway differences, not equivalence of credentials.
| Feature | ACSM Exercise is Medicine Credential | ACSM-EP |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Asynchronous online course with quizzes | Base certification with its own handbook rules |
| Role in a career | Specialty added to an existing certification | Foundational certification |
| Degree requirement | B.S./B.A. in exercise science, exercise physiology or kinesiology | See ACSM's Exercise Physiologist page |
| Focus | Connecting clinical care and community exercise | Exercise testing and prescription |
One caution: ACSM's current candidate handbook covers its base certifications and has no EIM entry, so base-certification testing rules should not be imported into EIM planning. Likewise, a generic ACSM scaled passing score is not evidence for this credential.
Where the Credential Fits in Practice
The credential's content points to a particular kind of work: roles where an exercise professional receives referrals from, and reports back to, clinical teams. Think medical fitness centers, hospital-affiliated wellness programs, community programs serving people with chronic conditions, and group programs for populations such as older adults. Public learning objectives emphasize health systems, clinical-to-community collaboration, referrals, documentation and professional scope, which aligns with those environments.
What cannot be claimed responsibly is a salary outcome. No exact earnings series for EIM credential holders has been verified, and no earnings premium caused by the credential has been demonstrated. Pay depends heavily on the underlying certification, degree, employer type and region. For a careful look at the question, see the EIM salary guide, whether the certification is worth it and EIM jobs.
Key Takeaway
Judge the credential by the work you want to do. If your goal is referral-based, clinically connected exercise programming, the curriculum maps directly to it. If your goal is a higher base salary on its own, the evidence is not there.
Sequencing Your Preparation
Because every quiz must reach 80%, sequence by difficulty and by how topics build on each other. The only study structure worth using here is one tied to the course's own order. This example assumes a self-paced schedule inside the 365-day access window:
Health Care Basics
- Master HIPAA, documentation and scope-of-practice scenarios first, since later cases depend on them
- Learn the models of care vocabulary used throughout the course
Common Medical Conditions
- Start with the cardiometabolic cluster: hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, metabolic syndrome, NAFLD
- Give extra time to Prediabetes/Type 2 Diabetes, the largest published quiz
- Finish with osteoarthritis, low-back pain and cancer
Older Adults and Special Settings
- Review the Older Adults quiz topics
- Cover small group program facilitation and virtual training
Behavior Change and Review
- Practice motivational interviewing and adherence cases
- Retake any area where you scored near the 80% line
For a resource-by-resource plan, use the EIM study guide, and for last-minute review, the EIM cheat sheet. You can also drill condition-by-condition scenarios on our practice test site. Practice questions from any vendor, including ours, are study aids and not issuer exam content, so use them to test understanding rather than to memorize answers.
What Is Not Publicly Confirmed
Honest preparation means knowing the gaps. As of ACSM's public pages retrieved in October 2026, the following were not verified, and any site presenting them as settled fact should be questioned:
- An EIM-specific expiration period, renewal fee or required CEU/CEC total. ACSM's recertification page and certification guidebook list other certifications without a current EIM entry, and O'Net's directory record includes legacy details that conflict with the current degree requirement.
- A single-exam question count or timed duration, scored versus unscored item allocation, and item-type specifications.
- Proctoring, calculator, open-book or testing-center policies for the quizzes.
- A complete failed-attempt retake policy. The catalog's retake wording concerns retakes after passing.
- Official domain percentage weights.
Third-party sites advertise practice banks with specific question totals, domain weights or 120-minute timers. Those are vendor product claims, not ACSM facts. For date and scheduling questions, check the EIM exam dates guide, and note that an asynchronous course does not follow fixed testing windows the way a proctored exam does.
Frequently Asked Questions
EIM stands for Exercise is Medicine Certification, an ACSM program. The current offering is the ACSM Exercise is Medicine Credential, an educational specialty program. Other credentials use the same acronym, so confirm the issuer before relying on any information.
The course itself has no prerequisites. The credential, however, requires at least a B.S. or B.A. in exercise science, exercise physiology or kinesiology, plus a qualifying base fitness certification. Taking the course alone does not satisfy those credential requirements.
ACSM requires at least 80% on every online examination, not an overall average. That means each of the course's assessments must individually reach the threshold before you receive the credential application invitation.
No. They are distinct pathways. EIM is an educational specialty credential focused on connecting exercise professionals with clinical care, while ACSM-EP is a separate base certification. One is not a substitute for the other.
A current EIM-specific validity period, renewal fee and CEU total have not been verified from ACSM's public pages. Third-party directories may list older information, so confirm directly with ACSM, and see our EIM certification overview for updates.