Who is an Exercise Physiologist?
Blaise Collins, PhD, ACSM-EP-C
Scientific Director | Marketing Consultant | Freelance Medical Writer | Exercise Physiologist
Who is an exercise physiologist? When asking Google this very question, the first non-advertisement explanation says we administer stress tests, evaluate overall health with special attention to cardiovascular function and metabolism, and develop individualized exercise programs. While this is certainly true for an entry level exercise physiologist, someone with a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology or Exercise Physiology and potentially a certification, it vastly misses the point for those of us with more experience or with higher degrees of education.
The response to that initial question is that we are allied healthcare professionals that are concerned with analysis, improvement, maintenance, and rehabilitation of various chronic diseases and disabilities. We are trained to address individual psychosocial barriers to exercise, physical limitations, and other deterrents. We undergo schooling in how exercise affects disease not only on the treadmill, but within the brain and within individual cells.
It probably seems there are not many differences between an exercise physiologist and a physical therapist (PT) or athletic trainer (AT); that’s because there aren’t many . In reality, they have similar scopes but differ in which areas of that scope they are most equipped for. Physical therapists and ATs are indispensable for guiding recovery following injury, exercise physiologists specialize in the pre-injury prevention and post-rehabilitation strengthening. Despite the ideal setting for a healthcare utopia, exercise physiologists are virtually entirely limited to cardiac rehab and the services are billed under nursing rather than exercise physiology. Given just how strongly an exercise physiologist could affect a healthcare institution, this needs to change.
Additionally, PTs and ATs have licensing pathways and receive referrals whereas there are not currently any licensing or reimbursement pathways for exercise physiologists. With that being said, exercise physiologists could easily be categorized as non-licensed qualified health professionals. This would establish us as a stronger presence in healthcare and lead to the ability for EPs to charge similar to how a PT or AT would. It would allow for physicians to refer patients to EPs and could potentially drastically reduce healthcare cos
So again, who is an exercise physiologist? At the Bachelor’s level we are not personal trainers simply following guidelines, we are cardiovascular experts with a high understanding of why we prescribe the exercise we prescribe. At the Master’s level, we are skilled healthcare professionals with mastery of exercise and how it is used as medicine in a large variety of diseases and disorders. At the Doctorate level, our knowledge of exercise surpasses any other healthcare profession and our understanding of many diseases is comparable to that of a nurse practitioner or medical doctor… yet our footprint in healthcare is limited to cardiac rehab.
The purpose of Exercise Physiologists for Healthcare Reform is to address the aforementioned reimbursement and regulatory pathways but also to enhance our footprint. Exercise as medical treatment as been validated in study after study, particularly when used as preventative treatment, but also as direct treatment in cardiovascular, orthopaedic, metabolism, oncology, and any number of other disease-related -ologies. If you are an exercise physiologist, medical doctor, nurse practitioner, or any other health professional that agrees exercise physiologists should be utilized more in healthcare, please reach out to us.
-Dr. P Blaise Collins
Clinical Pediatric Exercise Physiologist
4yI would first like to state that while I did not read this article, I read the comments and would like to clarify some misconceptions. I think I had a very unique education, because when I completed my Bachelors, our careers and paths and abilities were many: Cardiac Rehab (with all special populations), Post Physical Therapy, Nutrition, Patient Education on anatomy, disease states, medications, Nutrition, psychological state and more, Peripheral Massage, Personal Trainer and Gym Owner, Special Programs Physiologist with avenues to continue on to teaching, Athletic Training and Physical Therapy. Additionally we were trained for: Cardiac Diagnostics to include GXTs, Stress Echos, Nuclear Stress Tests, CPETs, Pulm CPETs, Dobutamines, Holter and Events monitors, Telemetry monitoring, EKGs and more. I am thankful for where I work because the doctors respect us as equals. When new Cardiology Fellows arrive, we (CEPs) are the ones who guide them with reading EKGs and medication interactions with testing. Granted they are doctors, but they learn from the directors of the program (the MDs) and us. I would like to add that I can also see the skepticism surrounding EPs/CEPs. Not all of us are schooled the same, trained the same. Some EPs are not meant to be clinical and not meant to guide fitness either. But I feel with Reform those certain individuals will be unable to qualify. There are many times where an EP or CEP has been "more correct" than the doctor they report to. CEPs catch things doctors miss sometimes. I have not only witnessed this but also experienced it. We are about saving lives. We know everything about our patients. We know exactly how to guide and prescribe them to a better lifestyle and monitor it as the patient starts out. I agree that CEPs are overlooked, underpaid and under utilized. Our backgrounds are so in-depth that we really are a silent allied healthcare provider. I look forward to knowing more and hearing more about change for our field.
Associate Program Director, Preventive Cardiology
4yVery nice article. However this is NOT a description of and EP. It is a CEP. There is a difference. It is more than just semantics. The ACSM makes a clear distinction and we, as CEPs must make that distinction. Also many CEPs do work in cardiac rehab but in no way is limited to this. We work as researcher coordinators, weight management coaches, oncology rehab programs, in senior living centers, PAD programs, and more. See the JCEP journal in Sept and Dec for important articles to this same point.