1. 🟢CME Accreditation for MD, DO, NP, PA, RN's

The word "certification" appears prominently throughout Empire's marketing, and on its own that word has no formal legal meaning: a "certificate of completion" simply documents that someone attended. What matters for post-graduate medical education is accredited continuing education (CME/CE) awarded through a recognized accredited provider, because those are the credits that medical, nursing, and other licensing boards actually accept. On this measure, Empire is genuinely strong, and it deserves credit. Empire's aesthetic courses are accredited through AKH Inc. (Advancing Knowledge in Healthcare), a continuing-education provider jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Per Empire's own course and accreditation pages, the core Botox and dermal filler workshops are designated for 8.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for physicians, 8.0 ANCC contact hours for nurses, and 8.0 AAPA Category 1 credit for physician assistants. That is broad, multi-credential accreditation covering the license types that make up most of Empire's audience, and it is among the more robust accreditation arrangements of any provider reviewed on this site. That said, two points are worth a prospective student's attention. Not every Empire offering is accredited, and credit totals vary by course and format. The most common in-person aesthetic workshops clearly display their AMA PRA Category 1 credit totals (for example, 8.0 credits for the core Botox and dermal filler workshops). Livestream and on-demand formats can carry different credit amounts, and not every course in Empire's large catalog necessarily carries the same accreditation. Before registering, a buyer should confirm the exact credit type and number of hours awarded for the specific course, date, and format they intend to attend, and that it will be accepted by their own board. Confirm the current term of accreditation. Accredited activities are approved for defined time periods. Empire's published credit statement does not clearly show the activity's term or expiration dates , so a buyer attending a specific date should confirm in writing that the accreditation is current for that date. One additional observation for the careful buyer: accreditation standards that govern ACCME, ANCC, and AAPA activities require independence from commercial interests, including limits on the promotion of specific brand-name products in connection with an accredited activity. Empire's course landing and registration pages name specific commercial product brands alongside the accredited-course offering. This is worth noting only so that buyers understand the distinction between independent, accredited education and product-specific promotion, and can ask the provider how the two are kept separate. If you are considering an Empire course that does not clearly list CME/CE credit, contact Empire first and confirm the credit type, the number of hours, the accrediting body, and the current term of approval before enrolling.

2. 🟡Faculty Qualifications and Transparency

For much of its history, Empire positioned itself as using an all-physician (MD and DO) teaching faculty. That is no longer the case on Empire's current faculty page. The page now organizes faculty into tiers , and within its "Teaching Faculty" it labels physicians as "Lead Instructor" or "Senior Leader Instructor," while a number of non-physician faculty — including nurse practitioners, registered nurses, physician assistants, and others — are labeled "Proctor." This is a meaningful change from the all-physician model Empire historically promoted, and a buyer who still associates Empire with an exclusively physician faculty should be aware of it. To Empire's credit, the company does publish a substantial faculty roster with names, photographs, and biographies, which is more disclosure than some competitors provide. The difficulty is what the roster does not tell you. Empire does not identify which instructor will teach any given course date and location. The roster lists the faculty as a group, but a prospective attendee cannot determine in advance who will actually teach their specific date, what that person's credentials are, or whether they fall in the "Lead Instructor" (physician) or "Proctor" (non-physician) tier. You therefore cannot evaluate your instructor's qualifications before paying. This creates a direct tension with Empire's own marketing. Empire's course pages state that hands-on practice is "supervised by our Physician faculty." Yet the faculty page lists non-physician "Proctors," and the role a Proctor plays in supervising live-patient hands-on training is not defined anywhere on the site. The distinction matters, because supervising hands-on injection is not the same as delivering a lecture: it is direct participation in patient care using prescription injectable drugs on live models. If a Proctor who is a nurse practitioner or physician assistant is overseeing that injection practice, that person must be licensed in the state where the class is held and, in the many states that require it, must have the appropriate collaborating or supervising physician in place for those treatments. A buyer cannot tell, in advance, whether their hands-on session will be supervised by a physician, as the course pages imply, or by a Proctor, or whether that Proctor holds the in-state licensure and physician collaboration the treatments may legally require. Empire should clarify what a "Proctor" does during hands-on training, which tier of faculty supervises the injection practice for a given course, and how in-state licensure and physician collaboration are ensured at each location. Empire's own Terms and Conditions reinforce this ambiguity. While one section refers to the "Empire physician instructor" as the supervising authority, the Code of Conduct section identifies the on-site authority during live events as the "supervising Physician or NP Instructor." In other words, Empire's own contract contemplates that the instructor supervising a live hands-on event may be a nurse practitioner rather than a physician, which is difficult to reconcile with the course pages' promise that hands-on practice is "supervised by our Physician faculty." There is a further irony worth noting. Empire's own course materials warn prospective students about "self-proclaimed expert trainers" and advise them to "diligently verify the credentials and qualifications of the faculty." That is good advice. But because Empire does not name the instructor for any specific date, a buyer who follows it would need to verify the entire published roster, and still not know who will teach their class. Empire's faculty page also features a tier of "Key Opinion Leaders," including well-known plastic surgeons and dermatologists. These are genuinely accomplished names, but the page presents them as opinion leaders and event speakers; nothing indicates they teach the routine regional workshops . A buyer should not assume that a marquee name on the faculty page will be present at their local hotel-based course. If you plan to register for an Empire course, contact the company first and ask for the name, degree, and licensure of the specific instructor assigned to your date and location, and confirm who will be supervising the live-patient hands-on portion.

3. 🟢 / 🔴 Completeness of the First-Level Courses

Calculating the true cost of training is already difficult once time off and travel are factored in. It becomes harder when a course presented as foundational turns out to reserve core material for a separate, higher-level course. Empire's two entry-level injectable courses fare differently on this measure, which is why this section carries a split rating. Botulinum toxin (acceptable) Empire's basic Botulinum Toxin course, priced at roughly $1,699 to $2,049 depending on location, provides hands-on practice on live models. Beyond the common entry-level areas, Empire's course detail lists a broad set of popular off-label and higher-demand applications as part of the basic curriculum, including uses such as masseter/TMJ and other well-established indications. For an entry-level course, this is a reasonably complete toxin curriculum, and Empire earns credit here. Buyers may still wish to confirm which of the listed areas they will personally inject on a model versus observe, but the scope of the basic toxin course as described is appropriate for its level. Dermal filler (could use improvement) Empire markets its entry-level filler course as "Complete Dermal Filler Training," priced at roughly $1,599 to $2,049 depending on location. However, per Empire's own published agenda, the hands-on practice in that course is limited to two areas: nasolabial folds and marionette lines. Lips are explicitly excluded from the hands-on and directed to the separate Advanced Botulinum Toxin & Filler course. The omission of lips is the most significant gap. Lip treatment and peri-oral lines are foundational, FDA-approved hyaluronic acid filler indications and one of the most requested aesthetic treatments. This is not a matter of outside opinion: Empire's own Advanced Lip Filler page states that lip injections are "the largest application for HA fillers in the face," exceeding both cheeks and nasolabial folds. A course that a provider markets as "Complete" while, by the company's own account, omitting hands-on practice in the single largest filler application is incompletely named. A new injector could complete Empire's "Complete Dermal Filler Training" and never have injected a lip under supervision. The cost of getting the rest To obtain hands-on practice in the high-demand filler areas left out of the basic filler course (lips, cheeks, jawline, chin), a buyer must also take the Advanced Botulinum Toxin & Filler course at roughly $1,699 to $2,049, typically held the following day in the same city, requiring a second tuition payment and a second day. Empire also markets a dedicated "Advanced Lip Filler Techniques / Master Lips Certification" course at a similar price, though as of this review that course showed no upcoming dates available to book anywhere in the country. The practical effect is that a provider who wants competent, supervised hands-on experience across the foundational filler areas, including lips, cannot get it from the single course Empire calls "Complete." Empire's published prices put both the basic Botox course and the basic filler course in the same range (roughly $1,599 to $2,049 depending on location and course, with a $200 discount when both are booked same-day), and the Advanced course adds roughly another $1,699 to $2,049 on top. By contrast, some providers teach the full set of foundational toxin and filler areas, including lips, within a single first-level course at a comparable or lower total cost. This is also the heart of a broader pattern discussed throughout this review: a catalog built around many courses and bundles tends to distribute foundational material across multiple purchases, rather than delivering it completely in one.

4. 🟢 Transparency Regarding Hands-On Product Provided in Tuition Cost.

This is an area where Empire has clearly improved and where it now compares favorably to many competitors . On the current course pages, Empire specifies the product used in the live-model hands-on portion: the basic Botulinum Toxin course states 40 units of neurotoxin , the basic Dermal Filler course states one syringe of hyaluronic acid filler , and the Advanced course states 20 units of toxin plus one HA syringe, all described as provided and included with tuition. Many training companies describe "hands-on" without committing to any product quantity at all, so naming a specific amount, and describing participants injecting live volunteer models rather than only observing demonstrations, is a genuine point in Empire's favor. Empire earns credit here. However a syringe of filler could be 0.6cc or 1.0cc, that is a very minor point. Two caveats keep this from being a complete picture, and both are things a buyer should clarify before paying. The amount is specified, but not whether it is per attendee or shared. Empire's pages state, for example, that participants will inject live models "using 40 units of neurotoxin," but do not state whether that quantity is allotted to each participant or shared across a group at each model. Because Empire also does not publish a maximum class size (see the next section), a buyer cannot calculate how much injecting they will personally perform. A specified product quantity only tells you what it is worth if you also know how many hands are sharing it. This matters beyond simple value: the amount of supervised injection a clinician personally performs is exactly what some malpractice carriers and employers look to when they ask for evidence of hands-on training, as distinct from attendance. The agenda is not committed in advance. Empire states that the final agenda is emailed approximately three days before the course and "may be adjusted based on course requirements and operational considerations." Empire's pages also note that not every course includes hands-on practice and that some are didactic only, advising buyers to call to confirm the format of a specific date. Taken together, the exact structure, and potentially the amount of personal hands-on practice, may not be fixed at the time of registration. If you are considering an Empire hands-on course, ask in writing, before registering, how much product you will personally inject (not merely how much is provided per model), how many participants share each model, and confirm that your specific date and location includes live-patient hands-on practice rather than demonstration or didactic-only instruction.

5. 🔴Maximum Hands-On Class Size

Class size is one of the most important factors in a one-day hands-on course, because it determines the ratio of participants to instructor and, with it, how much individual supervision and personal injecting time each attendee actually receives. On this measure, Empire is the weakest of the programs reviewed on this site, for a simple reason: Empire does not publish a maximum hands-on class size anywhere on its course pages. Empire's pages describe "one-on-one instruction," which is the right language. But "small group" is not a number, and nowhere does Empire commit to a cap on participants per course or per instructor. A buyer cannot determine, before paying, whether a session will have six participants or thirty. By contrast, some other programs reviewed here do publish a specific maximum (for example, caps in the range of eight to ten participants), which at least allows a buyer to calculate the supervision ratio in advance. Empire provides no such number. The absence of a published cap compounds two earlier points. Without a class-size limit, the specified hands-on product (Section 4) cannot be translated into how much any individual will personally inject, and the unresolved question of who supervises the hands-on (Section 2) becomes more consequential: a higher participant-to-supervisor ratio means each attendee receives less direct oversight during live-patient injection. If that supervision is being provided in part by non-physician "Proctors," the number of attendees each Proctor is responsible for during injection practice is precisely the figure a buyer would want, and precisely the figure Empire does not publish. A well-structured hands-on course generally keeps the participant-to-instructor ratio low so that each attendee gets meaningful supervised injecting time. When demand exceeds capacity, the alternatives that preserve training quality are to add dates or add qualified instructors, rather than to add seats to an existing session. Because Empire does not disclose its ratio, a buyer cannot tell which approach is being used for any given date. If you are considering an Empire hands-on course, ask for the maximum class size and the number of supervising instructors for your specific date in writing before registering, and confirm how many participants will share each live model and each supervisor during the hands-on portion.

6. 🟡Location Transparency

Empire holds its courses in hotel meeting space across a large number of cities, and when a specific venue is named, this is a genuine strength. Near-term dates on Empire's calendar frequently list the actual hotel by name, often with a discounted room-block link , which is more useful to a traveling participant than a city-only listing with no venue. Where Empire names the hotel, it tends to be an established, identifiable property, and that deserves credit. The weakness is consistency. A significant share of Empire's listed dates, particularly those more than a month or two out, show "Hotel to be announced" rather than a named venue, and some dates are listed at Empire's Fort Lauderdale corporate office rather than a hotel. For a course that already requires travel, the venue is not a minor detail: it determines flight choices, drive times, and lodging, and a buyer registering for a future date may be committing tuition before knowing where the course will physically take place. This is also worth weighing against the membership and multi-course structure discussed elsewhere in this review. A participant who has prepaid for several courses, and who must attend across multiple weekends to use them, is more exposed to venue uncertainty than someone booking a single nearby date, because more of their required dates may still be unannounced when they are planning travel. If you are considering an Empire course, confirm the exact venue, not just the city, for your specific date before booking travel, and ask how far in advance the hotel is typically finalized for dates currently listed as "to be announced."

7. 🔴 Unaccredited Board Claims, Society Claims, or Membership Upsells

This is the area where prospective students should apply the most scrutiny, and it is the area that most distinguishes Empire's business model. It combines two things that are easy to conflate but are very different: legitimate, accredited continuing education (covered in Section 1), and an in-house "board certification" pathway and membership structure layered on top of it. CME training NEVER expires, and Memberships are not a regulatory requirement Empire was among the early organizations to build membership-based education in the aesthetic CME space, and memberships are central to how courses are sold today, with tiers ranging from roughly $7,299 to over $15,000, marketed as granting "free" access to dozens of courses. Prospective participants should understand a basic point that the membership framing can obscure: continuing membership is not a regulatory requirement to maintain prior training. Accredited coursework, once completed, does not expire unless a specific credentialing body requires periodic re-training, which is generally not the case for procedural or aesthetic CME. Training is distinct from licensure. State medical, nursing, and dental boards regulate professional practice; private membership organizations do not. The "board certification" and its relationship to Empire Empire markets a "Board Certification Pathway" through an organization called the American Academy of Procedural Medicine (AAOPM) , including, per Empire's own pages, a certification plaque. This pathway is promoted directly on Empire's course and accreditation pages, alongside its legitimate AKH/ACCME accreditation. The relationship between AAOPM and Empire is not arm's-length, and this is documented in Empire's own materials. According to the biography of Empire's Vice-President on Empire's faculty page, she, "alongside her husband Dr. Stephen Cosentino" — Empire's founder and president — "co-create[d] the American Academy of Procedural Medicine (AAOPM)." In other words, the same two individuals who lead Empire Medical Training co-created the body that issues the "board certification" Empire markets to its own students. The credential also appears among Empire's own faculty, several of whom list AAOPM board certification or "FAAOPM" designations in their bios. It is important to understand how this differs from an independent specialty board. Independent boards are typically governed by diverse professionals positioned outside any single commercial education provider , and operate separately from the organizations whose graduates they certify. A credential created and administered by the leadership of the training company that sells the courses is, by definition, not an independent third-party certification of that company's training; it is an internally governed designation. That does not make it worthless as a marketing or continuing-education construct, but a practitioner should be clear about what it is before treating it as equivalent to certification by an external authority. Two further points of context. First, aesthetic medicine is not a formally recognized specialty of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), so no private organization functions as the regulatory certifying authority for the field; any "board certification" in aesthetics should be evaluated on what it specifically represents, not assumed to carry ABMS- or AOA-equivalent standing. Second, a buyer should weigh what the AAOPM credential actually provides relative to its place in the sales process, recognizing that it originates with the same leadership that operates the training company. The surrounding sales structure The board pathway and memberships sit within a sales structure that uses considerable urgency. Empire's pages run a near-permanent "up to 50% off" sale with a countdown timer (the specific holiday changes, but the discounted-from price is a constant), a spin-the-wheel prize promotion, and membership terms that include a "second year free" benefit that is itself non-refundable and, per Empire's terms, carries no guarantee of delivered services during that year. None of these tactics is unique to Empire, but in combination they create pressure to commit substantial sums upfront, and to read the "board certification" as a more significant credential than its in-house origins support. Before enrolling in any membership or credentialing pathway, review the governance and ownership of any "board" or "academy" offering certification, confirm what the designation is actually recognized to mean by parties other than the issuing organization, and weigh its cost and conditions against accredited CME you can obtain without it. If a credential is issued by a body created and led by the same people who run the training company, treat it as an internal designation unless you can independently verify otherwise.

8. 🟢 Offers a Blended Online plus Live Learning Environment

Empire now delivers its foundational Botulinum Toxin and Dermal Filler courses in a blended format: participants complete the didactic portion online beforehand, then attend in person for the live-patient hands-on session. This is a sound, modern structure. Moving lecture content online frees the in-person day for actual technique practice and one-on-one time with the instructor, and the online didactic remains available for review. Empire executes this well and at scale, and it earns credit here. One caveat carries over from earlier in this review. Because the in-person hands-on portion of these courses runs roughly four hours, the value of that time depends heavily on the participant-to-instructor ratio, and Empire does not publish a maximum class size or the number of supervising instructors per session (see Sections 2 and 5). Four hours of live practice is meaningful with a small group and adequate supervision; the same four hours is far less valuable in a large room with an unknown number of instructors or "Proctors." The blended format is a genuine strength, but a buyer should confirm the in-person class size and supervision before assuming the live day will deliver the hands-on depth the format is designed to enable. Before registering, confirm the length of the in-person hands-on session, the maximum number of participants, and how many instructors will supervise it.

9. 🟡Risk of Models and Model Recruitment for Hands-On

One of the more concerning practices in this field is the public recruitment of members of the public to receive injectable treatments at a training course, sometimes at a discount or fee, from trainees who have just learned the technique. On this point, Empire compares favorably to several competitors, and that deserves credit: there is no public-facing mechanism on Empire's site for the general public to sign up or pay to be a model. The hands-on practice is framed around the training, not around marketing discounted procedures to recruited patients. Empire also allows participants to bring their own patient for the hands-on portion. Per its course FAQs, attendees may bring a patient (with advance notice and screening), and Empire states that it also provides models when a participant prefers. The bring-your-own option is a genuine positive: it lets a clinician practice on someone within their own care, with whom they can arrange appropriate follow-up. A training program that permits this is doing the right thing, and Empire does. The caveat is the alternative Empire offers: provided models. When the course supplies the patient, two questions arise that Empire's pages do not resolve. First, continuity of care: a provided model treated by a traveling attendee at a hotel course has no clear path to follow-up if a result needs attention after the course ends, since the injector and the model typically do not share an ongoing clinical relationship. Second, supervision and scope: as discussed in Sections 2 and 5, the live injection is patient care with prescription products, and if that hands-on is being supervised by a non-physician "Proctor," the question of in-state licensure and required physician collaboration applies to the treatment of a provided model just as it would in any clinical setting. Empire's pages do not specify who is clinically responsible for a provided model, or how follow-up is handled. If you are considering Empire training, the strongest option is to ask whether you may bring your own patient (Empire's FAQs indicate yes), so that you control follow-up and the clinical relationship. If you will be treating a provided model instead, ask in advance who holds clinical responsibility for that model, how any post-treatment follow-up is handled, and which licensed clinician is supervising the injection.

10. 🟡General Transparency, Cost, and Accessibility

Empire is the largest and one of the oldest providers in this space, and across this review it earns genuine credit in several areas: strong multi-credential accreditation, specified hands-on product, a sound blended format, named venues when disclosed, and a bring-your-own-patient option. Those are real strengths, and a buyer should weigh them. This final section covers the cost picture and the transparency questions a prospective student should resolve before committing. The breadth-versus-depth question Empire's defining characteristic is breadth: five "Academies," dozens of one-day courses, college-style course codes, and memberships marketed as granting access to most of the catalog. Breadth has real appeal, but it is worth asking what it delivers for a given practice. The most successful aesthetic providers are usually those who do one or two in-demand services exceptionally well, the procedures their particular patient base actually requests, rather than those who hold introductory certificates across many. A catalog of dozens of intro-level courses can encourage sampling many techniques at a beginner level and implementing several at once, which is a path to being adequate at many things and excellent at none. Before buying breadth, a clinician should decide which one or two services they intend to build, and ask whether Empire delivers genuine depth in those specific procedures, or primarily an introduction across many. The total cost picture Headline course prices (roughly $1,599 to $2,049 for the foundational courses) are only part of the cost. As detailed in Section 3, obtaining supervised hands-on across the foundational filler areas, including lips, requires the Advanced course as well, adding roughly another $1,699 to $2,049. Memberships run from about $7,299 to over $15,000. To these, add the real costs the website does not: travel, lodging, and time away from practice, multiplied across however many separate course dates and cities a participant's chosen path requires. A membership's value in particular depends entirely on whether the specific courses a buyer wants are scheduled, in reachable locations, within the membership term, a calculation a buyer should run before purchasing, not after. The much-advertised guarantee, read closely Empire heavily promotes a "WOW" satisfaction guarantee, framed as a full tuition refund if the course is not the best you have attended. The guarantee is real, but its documented conditions are demanding, and a buyer should read them before relying on the headline. Per Empire's own terms, to claim it a participant must request the refund in person, before the afternoon session begins, on the day of the course; must present original receipts for travel expenses; and must complete a signed form countersigned by Empire staff. Critically, a participant who invokes the guarantee forfeits the certificate and the CME credit for the course. In practice, this means the refund is available only by deciding, partway through the first morning, to leave with no credential, and only with documentation in hand. That is a much narrower promise than the marketing implies. Ratings versus reviews Empire holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, which the company features prominently. A buyer should not stop at the letter grade. The same BBB profile contains the actual customer reviews and complaint narratives, which are more mixed than the headline rating suggests. The rating and the reviews are different things; read both, and look for patterns in how the company responds to complaints over time. A large faculty roster is not the same as knowing your instructor As noted in Section 2, Empire publishes a sizable faculty page. That roster is impressive in length, but its size can create a misleading impression. It includes "Key Opinion Leaders" who appear to participate as speakers and at marquee events rather than teaching routine regional workshops, and a large general roster from which any individual may or may not be teaching on a given date. A long list of names is not the same as knowing, in advance, who will teach and supervise your specific course. Treat the roster as a directory of people who have been associated with Empire, not as a guarantee about your date. Academic-sounding packaging Empire now organizes its catalog into five "Academies" and assigns courses college-style codes (for example, "EAES-101"), alongside "Pathways" and "Master" certifications. This vocabulary borrows the language of accredited higher education. It is worth being clear about what it does and does not signify: these are branding and organizational labels for a private continuing-education company's one-day workshops, not evidence of university affiliation, degree-granting authority, or academic accreditation in the sense a college or medical school carries. The relevant credential is the accredited CME/CE discussed in Section 1; the "Academy," course-code, and "Master certification" packaging around it does not add academic standing beyond that. A buyer should evaluate the underlying accredited credit and hands-on training on their merits, and not infer institutional academic recognition from the naming. Marketing, institutional references, and contract terms Empire references training at well-known academic institutions in connection with its cadaver-based anatomy programs. In this industry, cadaver courses are commonly held at university-affiliated facilities because those institutions provide anatomy-lab access; this typically reflects a facility-use arrangement rather than academic sponsorship, endorsement, or curriculum oversight by the university of hotel-based injectable courses. A buyer should confirm whether any named institution formally sponsors or accredits the educational content, or is simply a venue. Five-star graphics, satisfaction statistics, and testimonial videos are common across this industry and Empire uses them liberally; a buyer should look for whether such metrics are independently verifiable and weigh a broad range of third-party feedback, positive and negative. The terms and conditions are worth reading in full before paying, and they merit attention for two reasons. First, the document is detailed and one-sided in places: the cancellation schedule provides no tuition refund once a course is within 15 days (with rescheduling fees of $299 within 15 days and $399 within 72 hours), online and livestream purchases are final upon access, and the chargeback provision states that disputing a charge without first contacting Empire results in forfeiture of any refund, a ban from all future Empire programs, and the participant's agreement to be liable for Empire's legal fees, under exclusive Florida (Broward County) jurisdiction with prevailing-party attorney fees. Second, this document is reachable through a footer link but is not presented on the course and registration pages where payment actually occurs, so a buyer has to seek it out. Read it before committing, and confirm key representations about course content, faculty, CME status, and scheduling in writing. Finally, Empire publishes its own side-by-side comparisons rating itself against named competitors. A reader can review these directly, while keeping in mind that they are authored by Empire and weighing how even-handed a provider's assessment of its own competition is likely to be. Bottom line Empire may be a reasonable fit for certain clinicians depending on timing, location, and goals, and its breadth and scale are real. But for a clinician whose aim is genuine competence in the one or two procedures their practice will actually offer, the more important questions are depth, supervision, class size, and total cost across all the dates required, not the size of the catalog. Do the due diligence: verify claims independently, read the contract, and evaluate total cost against educational value. If you are considering a membership, look first at the actual published schedules for the specific courses you want, estimate the travel and time off required to use them, and run that calculation before purchasing.

Empire Medical Training Course Reviews

Empire Medical Training Review Summary: Empire Medical Training is a high-volume aesthetic education provider with very wide course offerings and a membership model, paired with limited transparency around per-date instructor credentials, class size, and the actual depth of hands-on practice in its entry-level courses. Below is a detailed breakdown of strengths and weaknesses.

Updated May 22, 2026

Review Methodology Explained

Aesthetic training programs can produce very different outcomes for clinicians depending on prior clinical experience, learning style, and access to mentorship after the course. Because of this variability, it is difficult to label any single training program as universally “best” or “worst.”

Instead, this site focuses on objective factors that are transparently available online at the training provider’s website that clinicians commonly evaluate when selecting post-graduate Botox® and dermal filler training, including:

Instructor credentials and licensure
CME accreditation status
Hands-on training structure
Class size and supervision
Patient model recruitment practices
Transparency of pricing and program structure

Our reviews rely primarily on information publicly available on each training provider’s website, including course descriptions, FAQs, and terms and conditions. When important details are unclear or not disclosed, those areas are identified so prospective students know which questions to ask before enrolling, and consider reasons why they might not be disclosed up front online in full transparency.

This site reviews accredited aesthetic continuing education providers that operate hands-on training at a minimum of ten venues nationwide. Providers with one to three training locations may offer high-quality regional training, but the structural questions a national buyer faces apply differently to regional providers and warrant separate evaluation. Buyers in a specific metropolitan area should not consider the absence of an accredited regional provider’s omission here to be an editorial comment.

Because training programs change over time, readers are encouraged to confirm current policies directly with the provider, and consider asking why those answers are not readily available on the company website.

Key Facts at a Glance…

One of the largest and oldest aesthetic training companies, offering dozens of courses across five “Academies.”
Entry-level courses provide hands-on practice with specified product, but the “Complete” dermal filler course teaches only a narrow set of treatment areas, reserving most high-demand procedures (including lips) for additional paid courses.
Empire does not publish a maximum hands-on class size for its courses.
Memberships and “AAOPM” board-certification pathways (AAOPM was co-created by Empire’s founder and vice-president) are layered onto course sales.
Faculty are listed company-wide, but the specific instructor and their credentials are not identified per course date.
Courses are typically held in hotel meeting space rather than clinical facilities.

Conclusion

For practitioners seeking high volume and broad access across many procedure types, Empire offers more options than almost any provider in the field. But the most successful aesthetic practices are usually built on doing one or two in-demand services exceptionally well, not on sampling many at an introductory level. For clinicians who want guaranteed depth of hands-on practice, a known and verifiable instructor, a published class size, and single-course certification without bundled memberships or in-house “board” credentials, other programs with broad CME accreditation, clinic-based hands-on training, and public per-date instructor rosters are worth evaluating. Read on for the detailed breakdown and links.

Empire Medical Training is one of the longer-standing private training organizations in the aesthetic and wellness education space, with origins dating to the early 2000s. The company has historically marketed heavily through direct-mail and promotional campaigns across aesthetics, functional medicine, and pain management, and today organizes its catalog into five “Academies” spanning dozens of individual workshops.

Empire offers a membership model allowing participants to attend multiple live courses over a defined period. While this structure can appear attractive in theory, prospective participants should carefully evaluate course availability, geographic distribution, and scheduling logistics before committing substantial upfront payment. The practical value of any membership depends on how frequently the specific courses a participant wants are offered in accessible locations, how much travel across multiple weekends is required, and whether every advertised course is actually being scheduled. (As of this review, for example, Empire’s individually marketed “Advanced Lip Filler Techniques” course listed no upcoming dates available to book.)

Online reviews over the years have reflected mixed experiences, including comments related to communication, scheduling, and course fulfillment. As with any training provider, prospective students should review independent sources such as the Better Business Bureau to understand the range of reported experiences and assess patterns over time. Historical reviews should be weighed in context, recognizing that businesses evolve, while also recognizing that this company’s ownership and leadership have remained substantially the same over time.

Empire offers training across a very broad array of topics. Prospective attendees should independently assess whether certain advanced procedures can be appropriately learned in short-format CME settings, and whether additional mentorship or supervised experience may be advisable before clinical implementation. A useful question for any provider offering dozens of

Multi-Point Review of Empire Medical Botox Training and AAOPM Botox Training

Each Category compares publicly available information on Empire Medical and AAOPM and compares it to an ideal industry training.

Empire Ownership: Osteopath (DO). Other investor involvement is unknown.

1. 🟢CME Accreditation for MD, DO, NP, PA, RN's
The word "certification" appears prominently throughout Empire's marketing, and on its own that word has no formal legal meaning: a "certificate of completion" simply documents that someone attended. What matters for post-graduate medical education is accredited continuing education (CME/CE) awarded through a recognized accredited provider, because those are the credits that medical, nursing, and other licensing boards actually accept.
On this measure, Empire is genuinely strong, and it deserves credit. Empire's aesthetic courses are accredited through AKH Inc. (Advancing Knowledge in Healthcare), a continuing-education provider jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Per Empire's own course and accreditation pages, the core Botox and dermal filler workshops are designated for 8.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for physicians, 8.0 ANCC contact hours for nurses, and 8.0 AAPA Category 1 credit for physician assistants. That is broad, multi-credential accreditation covering the license types that make up most of Empire's audience, and it is among the more robust accreditation arrangements of any provider reviewed on this site.
That said, two points are worth a prospective student's attention.
Not every Empire offering is accredited, and credit totals vary by course and format. The most common in-person aesthetic workshops clearly display their AMA PRA Category 1 credit totals (for example, 8.0 credits for the core Botox and dermal filler workshops). Livestream and on-demand formats can carry different credit amounts, and not every course in Empire's large catalog necessarily carries the same accreditation. Before registering, a buyer should confirm the exact credit type and number of hours awarded for the specific course, date, and format they intend to attend, and that it will be accepted by their own board.
Confirm the current term of accreditation. Accredited activities are approved for defined time periods. Empire's published credit statement does not clearly show the activity's term or expiration dates, so a buyer attending a specific date should confirm in writing that the accreditation is current for that date.
One additional observation for the careful buyer: accreditation standards that govern ACCME, ANCC, and AAPA activities require independence from commercial interests, including limits on the promotion of specific brand-name products in connection with an accredited activity. Empire's course landing and registration pages name specific commercial product brands alongside the accredited-course offering. This is worth noting only so that buyers understand the distinction between independent, accredited education and product-specific promotion, and can ask the provider how the two are kept separate.
If you are considering an Empire course that does not clearly list CME/CE credit, contact Empire first and confirm the credit type, the number of hours, the accrediting body, and the current term of approval before enrolling.
2. 🟡Faculty Qualifications and Transparency
For much of its history, Empire positioned itself as using an all-physician (MD and DO) teaching faculty. That is no longer the case on Empire's current faculty page. The page now organizes faculty into tiers, and within its "Teaching Faculty" it labels physicians as "Lead Instructor" or "Senior Leader Instructor," while a number of non-physician faculty — including nurse practitioners, registered nurses, physician assistants, and others — are labeled "Proctor." This is a meaningful change from the all-physician model Empire historically promoted, and a buyer who still associates Empire with an exclusively physician faculty should be aware of it.
To Empire's credit, the company does publish a substantial faculty roster with names, photographs, and biographies, which is more disclosure than some competitors provide. The difficulty is what the roster does not tell you.
Empire does not identify which instructor will teach any given course date and location. The roster lists the faculty as a group, but a prospective attendee cannot determine in advance who will actually teach their specific date, what that person's credentials are, or whether they fall in the "Lead Instructor" (physician) or "Proctor" (non-physician) tier. You therefore cannot evaluate your instructor's qualifications before paying.
This creates a direct tension with Empire's own marketing. Empire's course pages state that hands-on practice is "supervised by our Physician faculty." Yet the faculty page lists non-physician "Proctors," and the role a Proctor plays in supervising live-patient hands-on training is not defined anywhere on the site. The distinction matters, because supervising hands-on injection is not the same as delivering a lecture: it is direct participation in patient care using prescription injectable drugs on live models. If a Proctor who is a nurse practitioner or physician assistant is overseeing that injection practice, that person must be licensed in the state where the class is held and, in the many states that require it, must have the appropriate collaborating or supervising physician in place for those treatments. A buyer cannot tell, in advance, whether their hands-on session will be supervised by a physician, as the course pages imply, or by a Proctor, or whether that Proctor holds the in-state licensure and physician collaboration the treatments may legally require. Empire should clarify what a "Proctor" does during hands-on training, which tier of faculty supervises the injection practice for a given course, and how in-state licensure and physician collaboration are ensured at each location.
Empire's own Terms and Conditions reinforce this ambiguity. While one section refers to the "Empire physician instructor" as the supervising authority, the Code of Conduct section identifies the on-site authority during live events as the "supervising Physician or NP Instructor." In other words, Empire's own contract contemplates that the instructor supervising a live hands-on event may be a nurse practitioner rather than a physician, which is difficult to reconcile with the course pages' promise that hands-on practice is "supervised by our Physician faculty."
There is a further irony worth noting. Empire's own course materials warn prospective students about "self-proclaimed expert trainers" and advise them to "diligently verify the credentials and qualifications of the faculty." That is good advice. But because Empire does not name the instructor for any specific date, a buyer who follows it would need to verify the entire published roster, and still not know who will teach their class.
Empire's faculty page also features a tier of "Key Opinion Leaders," including well-known plastic surgeons and dermatologists. These are genuinely accomplished names, but the page presents them as opinion leaders and event speakers; nothing indicates they teach the routine regional workshops. A buyer should not assume that a marquee name on the faculty page will be present at their local hotel-based course.
If you plan to register for an Empire course, contact the company first and ask for the name, degree, and licensure of the specific instructor assigned to your date and location, and confirm who will be supervising the live-patient hands-on portion.
3. 🟢 / 🔴 Completeness of the First-Level Courses
Calculating the true cost of training is already difficult once time off and travel are factored in. It becomes harder when a course presented as foundational turns out to reserve core material for a separate, higher-level course. Empire's two entry-level injectable courses fare differently on this measure, which is why this section carries a split rating.
Botulinum toxin (acceptable)
Empire's basic Botulinum Toxin course, priced at roughly $1,699 to $2,049 depending on location, provides hands-on practice on live models. Beyond the common entry-level areas, Empire's course detail lists a broad set of popular off-label and higher-demand applications as part of the basic curriculum, including uses such as masseter/TMJ and other well-established indications. For an entry-level course, this is a reasonably complete toxin curriculum, and Empire earns credit here. Buyers may still wish to confirm which of the listed areas they will personally inject on a model versus observe, but the scope of the basic toxin course as described is appropriate for its level.
Dermal filler (could use improvement)
Empire markets its entry-level filler course as "Complete Dermal Filler Training," priced at roughly $1,599 to $2,049 depending on location. However, per Empire's own published agenda, the hands-on practice in that course is limited to two areas: nasolabial folds and marionette lines. Lips are explicitly excluded from the hands-on and directed to the separate Advanced Botulinum Toxin & Filler course.
The omission of lips is the most significant gap. Lip treatment and peri-oral lines are foundational, FDA-approved hyaluronic acid filler indications and one of the most requested aesthetic treatments. This is not a matter of outside opinion: Empire's own Advanced Lip Filler page states that lip injections are "the largest application for HA fillers in the face," exceeding both cheeks and nasolabial folds. A course that a provider markets as "Complete" while, by the company's own account, omitting hands-on practice in the single largest filler application is incompletely named. A new injector could complete Empire's "Complete Dermal Filler Training" and never have injected a lip under supervision.
The cost of getting the rest
To obtain hands-on practice in the high-demand filler areas left out of the basic filler course (lips, cheeks, jawline, chin), a buyer must also take the Advanced Botulinum Toxin & Filler course at roughly $1,699 to $2,049, typically held the following day in the same city, requiring a second tuition payment and a second day. Empire also markets a dedicated "Advanced Lip Filler Techniques / Master Lips Certification" course at a similar price, though as of this review that course showed no upcoming dates available to book anywhere in the country.
The practical effect is that a provider who wants competent, supervised hands-on experience across the foundational filler areas, including lips, cannot get it from the single course Empire calls "Complete." Empire's published prices put both the basic Botox course and the basic filler course in the same range (roughly $1,599 to $2,049 depending on location and course, with a $200 discount when both are booked same-day), and the Advanced course adds roughly another $1,699 to $2,049 on top. By contrast, some providers teach the full set of foundational toxin and filler areas, including lips, within a single first-level course at a comparable or lower total cost. This is also the heart of a broader pattern discussed throughout this review: a catalog built around many courses and bundles tends to distribute foundational material across multiple purchases, rather than delivering it completely in one.
4. 🟢 Transparency Regarding Hands-On Product Provided in Tuition Cost.
This is an area where Empire has clearly improved and where it now compares favorably to many competitors. On the current course pages, Empire specifies the product used in the live-model hands-on portion: the basic Botulinum Toxin course states 40 units of neurotoxin, the basic Dermal Filler course states one syringe of hyaluronic acid filler, and the Advanced course states 20 units of toxin plus one HA syringe, all described as provided and included with tuition. Many training companies describe "hands-on" without committing to any product quantity at all, so naming a specific amount, and describing participants injecting live volunteer models rather than only observing demonstrations, is a genuine point in Empire's favor. Empire earns credit here. However a syringe of filler could be 0.6cc or 1.0cc, that is a very minor point.
Two caveats keep this from being a complete picture, and both are things a buyer should clarify before paying.
The amount is specified, but not whether it is per attendee or shared. Empire's pages state, for example, that participants will inject live models "using 40 units of neurotoxin," but do not state whether that quantity is allotted to each participant or shared across a group at each model. Because Empire also does not publish a maximum class size (see the next section), a buyer cannot calculate how much injecting they will personally perform. A specified product quantity only tells you what it is worth if you also know how many hands are sharing it. This matters beyond simple value: the amount of supervised injection a clinician personally performs is exactly what some malpractice carriers and employers look to when they ask for evidence of hands-on training, as distinct from attendance.
The agenda is not committed in advance. Empire states that the final agenda is emailed approximately three days before the course and "may be adjusted based on course requirements and operational considerations." Empire's pages also note that not every course includes hands-on practice and that some are didactic only, advising buyers to call to confirm the format of a specific date. Taken together, the exact structure, and potentially the amount of personal hands-on practice, may not be fixed at the time of registration.
If you are considering an Empire hands-on course, ask in writing, before registering, how much product you will personally inject (not merely how much is provided per model), how many participants share each model, and confirm that your specific date and location includes live-patient hands-on practice rather than demonstration or didactic-only instruction.
5. 🔴Maximum Hands-On Class Size
Class size is one of the most important factors in a one-day hands-on course, because it determines the ratio of participants to instructor and, with it, how much individual supervision and personal injecting time each attendee actually receives. On this measure, Empire is the weakest of the programs reviewed on this site, for a simple reason: Empire does not publish a maximum hands-on class size anywhere on its course pages.
Empire's pages describe "one-on-one instruction," which is the right language. But "small group" is not a number, and nowhere does Empire commit to a cap on participants per course or per instructor. A buyer cannot determine, before paying, whether a session will have six participants or thirty. By contrast, some other programs reviewed here do publish a specific maximum (for example, caps in the range of eight to ten participants), which at least allows a buyer to calculate the supervision ratio in advance. Empire provides no such number.
The absence of a published cap compounds two earlier points. Without a class-size limit, the specified hands-on product (Section 4) cannot be translated into how much any individual will personally inject, and the unresolved question of who supervises the hands-on (Section 2) becomes more consequential: a higher participant-to-supervisor ratio means each attendee receives less direct oversight during live-patient injection. If that supervision is being provided in part by non-physician "Proctors," the number of attendees each Proctor is responsible for during injection practice is precisely the figure a buyer would want, and precisely the figure Empire does not publish.
A well-structured hands-on course generally keeps the participant-to-instructor ratio low so that each attendee gets meaningful supervised injecting time. When demand exceeds capacity, the alternatives that preserve training quality are to add dates or add qualified instructors, rather than to add seats to an existing session. Because Empire does not disclose its ratio, a buyer cannot tell which approach is being used for any given date.
If you are considering an Empire hands-on course, ask for the maximum class size and the number of supervising instructors for your specific date in writing before registering, and confirm how many participants will share each live model and each supervisor during the hands-on portion.
6. 🟡Location Transparency
Empire holds its courses in hotel meeting space across a large number of cities, and when a specific venue is named, this is a genuine strength. Near-term dates on Empire's calendar frequently list the actual hotel by name, often with a discounted room-block link, which is more useful to a traveling participant than a city-only listing with no venue. Where Empire names the hotel, it tends to be an established, identifiable property, and that deserves credit.
The weakness is consistency. A significant share of Empire's listed dates, particularly those more than a month or two out, show "Hotel to be announced" rather than a named venue, and some dates are listed at Empire's Fort Lauderdale corporate office rather than a hotel. For a course that already requires travel, the venue is not a minor detail: it determines flight choices, drive times, and lodging, and a buyer registering for a future date may be committing tuition before knowing where the course will physically take place.
This is also worth weighing against the membership and multi-course structure discussed elsewhere in this review. A participant who has prepaid for several courses, and who must attend across multiple weekends to use them, is more exposed to venue uncertainty than someone booking a single nearby date, because more of their required dates may still be unannounced when they are planning travel.
If you are considering an Empire course, confirm the exact venue, not just the city, for your specific date before booking travel, and ask how far in advance the hotel is typically finalized for dates currently listed as "to be announced."
7. 🔴 Unaccredited Board Claims, Society Claims, or Membership Upsells
This is the area where prospective students should apply the most scrutiny, and it is the area that most distinguishes Empire's business model. It combines two things that are easy to conflate but are very different: legitimate, accredited continuing education (covered in Section 1), and an in-house "board certification" pathway and membership structure layered on top of it.
CME training NEVER expires, and Memberships are not a regulatory requirement
Empire was among the early organizations to build membership-based education in the aesthetic CME space, and memberships are central to how courses are sold today, with tiers ranging from roughly $7,299 to over $15,000, marketed as granting "free" access to dozens of courses. Prospective participants should understand a basic point that the membership framing can obscure: continuing membership is not a regulatory requirement to maintain prior training. Accredited coursework, once completed, does not expire unless a specific credentialing body requires periodic re-training, which is generally not the case for procedural or aesthetic CME. Training is distinct from licensure. State medical, nursing, and dental boards regulate professional practice; private membership organizations do not.
The "board certification" and its relationship to Empire
Empire markets a "Board Certification Pathway" through an organization called the American Academy of Procedural Medicine (AAOPM), including, per Empire's own pages, a certification plaque. This pathway is promoted directly on Empire's course and accreditation pages, alongside its legitimate AKH/ACCME accreditation.
The relationship between AAOPM and Empire is not arm's-length, and this is documented in Empire's own materials. According to the biography of Empire's Vice-President on Empire's faculty page, she, "alongside her husband Dr. Stephen Cosentino" — Empire's founder and president — "co-create[d] the American Academy of Procedural Medicine (AAOPM)." In other words, the same two individuals who lead Empire Medical Training co-created the body that issues the "board certification" Empire markets to its own students. The credential also appears among Empire's own faculty, several of whom list AAOPM board certification or "FAAOPM" designations in their bios.
It is important to understand how this differs from an independent specialty board. Independent boards are typically governed by diverse professionals positioned outside any single commercial education provider, and operate separately from the organizations whose graduates they certify. A credential created and administered by the leadership of the training company that sells the courses is, by definition, not an independent third-party certification of that company's training; it is an internally governed designation. That does not make it worthless as a marketing or continuing-education construct, but a practitioner should be clear about what it is before treating it as equivalent to certification by an external authority.
Two further points of context. First, aesthetic medicine is not a formally recognized specialty of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), so no private organization functions as the regulatory certifying authority for the field; any "board certification" in aesthetics should be evaluated on what it specifically represents, not assumed to carry ABMS- or AOA-equivalent standing. Second, a buyer should weigh what the AAOPM credential actually provides relative to its place in the sales process, recognizing that it originates with the same leadership that operates the training company.
The surrounding sales structure
The board pathway and memberships sit within a sales structure that uses considerable urgency. Empire's pages run a near-permanent "up to 50% off" sale with a countdown timer (the specific holiday changes, but the discounted-from price is a constant), a spin-the-wheel prize promotion, and membership terms that include a "second year free" benefit that is itself non-refundable and, per Empire's terms, carries no guarantee of delivered services during that year. None of these tactics is unique to Empire, but in combination they create pressure to commit substantial sums upfront, and to read the "board certification" as a more significant credential than its in-house origins support.
Before enrolling in any membership or credentialing pathway, review the governance and ownership of any "board" or "academy" offering certification, confirm what the designation is actually recognized to mean by parties other than the issuing organization, and weigh its cost and conditions against accredited CME you can obtain without it. If a credential is issued by a body created and led by the same people who run the training company, treat it as an internal designation unless you can independently verify otherwise.
8. 🟢 Offers a Blended Online plus Live Learning Environment
Empire now delivers its foundational Botulinum Toxin and Dermal Filler courses in a blended format: participants complete the didactic portion online beforehand, then attend in person for the live-patient hands-on session. This is a sound, modern structure. Moving lecture content online frees the in-person day for actual technique practice and one-on-one time with the instructor, and the online didactic remains available for review. Empire executes this well and at scale, and it earns credit here.
One caveat carries over from earlier in this review. Because the in-person hands-on portion of these courses runs roughly four hours, the value of that time depends heavily on the participant-to-instructor ratio, and Empire does not publish a maximum class size or the number of supervising instructors per session (see Sections 2 and 5). Four hours of live practice is meaningful with a small group and adequate supervision; the same four hours is far less valuable in a large room with an unknown number of instructors or "Proctors." The blended format is a genuine strength, but a buyer should confirm the in-person class size and supervision before assuming the live day will deliver the hands-on depth the format is designed to enable.
Before registering, confirm the length of the in-person hands-on session, the maximum number of participants, and how many instructors will supervise it.
9. 🟡Risk of Models and Model Recruitment for Hands-On
One of the more concerning practices in this field is the public recruitment of members of the public to receive injectable treatments at a training course, sometimes at a discount or fee, from trainees who have just learned the technique. On this point, Empire compares favorably to several competitors, and that deserves credit: there is no public-facing mechanism on Empire's site for the general public to sign up or pay to be a model. The hands-on practice is framed around the training, not around marketing discounted procedures to recruited patients.
Empire also allows participants to bring their own patient for the hands-on portion. Per its course FAQs, attendees may bring a patient (with advance notice and screening), and Empire states that it also provides models when a participant prefers. The bring-your-own option is a genuine positive: it lets a clinician practice on someone within their own care, with whom they can arrange appropriate follow-up. A training program that permits this is doing the right thing, and Empire does.
The caveat is the alternative Empire offers: provided models. When the course supplies the patient, two questions arise that Empire's pages do not resolve. First, continuity of care: a provided model treated by a traveling attendee at a hotel course has no clear path to follow-up if a result needs attention after the course ends, since the injector and the model typically do not share an ongoing clinical relationship. Second, supervision and scope: as discussed in Sections 2 and 5, the live injection is patient care with prescription products, and if that hands-on is being supervised by a non-physician "Proctor," the question of in-state licensure and required physician collaboration applies to the treatment of a provided model just as it would in any clinical setting. Empire's pages do not specify who is clinically responsible for a provided model, or how follow-up is handled.
If you are considering Empire training, the strongest option is to ask whether you may bring your own patient (Empire's FAQs indicate yes), so that you control follow-up and the clinical relationship. If you will be treating a provided model instead, ask in advance who holds clinical responsibility for that model, how any post-treatment follow-up is handled, and which licensed clinician is supervising the injection.
10. 🟡General Transparency, Cost, and Accessibility
Empire is the largest and one of the oldest providers in this space, and across this review it earns genuine credit in several areas: strong multi-credential accreditation, specified hands-on product, a sound blended format, named venues when disclosed, and a bring-your-own-patient option. Those are real strengths, and a buyer should weigh them. This final section covers the cost picture and the transparency questions a prospective student should resolve before committing.
The breadth-versus-depth question
Empire's defining characteristic is breadth: five "Academies," dozens of one-day courses, college-style course codes, and memberships marketed as granting access to most of the catalog. Breadth has real appeal, but it is worth asking what it delivers for a given practice. The most successful aesthetic providers are usually those who do one or two in-demand services exceptionally well, the procedures their particular patient base actually requests, rather than those who hold introductory certificates across many. A catalog of dozens of intro-level courses can encourage sampling many techniques at a beginner level and implementing several at once, which is a path to being adequate at many things and excellent at none. Before buying breadth, a clinician should decide which one or two services they intend to build, and ask whether Empire delivers genuine depth in those specific procedures, or primarily an introduction across many.
The total cost picture
Headline course prices (roughly $1,599 to $2,049 for the foundational courses) are only part of the cost. As detailed in Section 3, obtaining supervised hands-on across the foundational filler areas, including lips, requires the Advanced course as well, adding roughly another $1,699 to $2,049. Memberships run from about $7,299 to over $15,000. To these, add the real costs the website does not: travel, lodging, and time away from practice, multiplied across however many separate course dates and cities a participant's chosen path requires. A membership's value in particular depends entirely on whether the specific courses a buyer wants are scheduled, in reachable locations, within the membership term, a calculation a buyer should run before purchasing, not after.
The much-advertised guarantee, read closely
Empire heavily promotes a "WOW" satisfaction guarantee, framed as a full tuition refund if the course is not the best you have attended. The guarantee is real, but its documented conditions are demanding, and a buyer should read them before relying on the headline. Per Empire's own terms, to claim it a participant must request the refund in person, before the afternoon session begins, on the day of the course; must present original receipts for travel expenses; and must complete a signed form countersigned by Empire staff. Critically, a participant who invokes the guarantee forfeits the certificate and the CME credit for the course. In practice, this means the refund is available only by deciding, partway through the first morning, to leave with no credential, and only with documentation in hand. That is a much narrower promise than the marketing implies.
Ratings versus reviews
Empire holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, which the company features prominently. A buyer should not stop at the letter grade. The same BBB profile contains the actual customer reviews and complaint narratives, which are more mixed than the headline rating suggests. The rating and the reviews are different things; read both, and look for patterns in how the company responds to complaints over time.
A large faculty roster is not the same as knowing your instructor
As noted in Section 2, Empire publishes a sizable faculty page. That roster is impressive in length, but its size can create a misleading impression. It includes "Key Opinion Leaders" who appear to participate as speakers and at marquee events rather than teaching routine regional workshops, and a large general roster from which any individual may or may not be teaching on a given date. A long list of names is not the same as knowing, in advance, who will teach and supervise your specific course. Treat the roster as a directory of people who have been associated with Empire, not as a guarantee about your date.
Academic-sounding packaging
Empire now organizes its catalog into five "Academies" and assigns courses college-style codes (for example, "EAES-101"), alongside "Pathways" and "Master" certifications. This vocabulary borrows the language of accredited higher education. It is worth being clear about what it does and does not signify: these are branding and organizational labels for a private continuing-education company's one-day workshops, not evidence of university affiliation, degree-granting authority, or academic accreditation in the sense a college or medical school carries. The relevant credential is the accredited CME/CE discussed in Section 1; the "Academy," course-code, and "Master certification" packaging around it does not add academic standing beyond that. A buyer should evaluate the underlying accredited credit and hands-on training on their merits, and not infer institutional academic recognition from the naming.
Marketing, institutional references, and contract terms
Empire references training at well-known academic institutions in connection with its cadaver-based anatomy programs. In this industry, cadaver courses are commonly held at university-affiliated facilities because those institutions provide anatomy-lab access; this typically reflects a facility-use arrangement rather than academic sponsorship, endorsement, or curriculum oversight by the university of hotel-based injectable courses. A buyer should confirm whether any named institution formally sponsors or accredits the educational content, or is simply a venue.
Five-star graphics, satisfaction statistics, and testimonial videos are common across this industry and Empire uses them liberally; a buyer should look for whether such metrics are independently verifiable and weigh a broad range of third-party feedback, positive and negative.
The terms and conditions are worth reading in full before paying, and they merit attention for two reasons. First, the document is detailed and one-sided in places: the cancellation schedule provides no tuition refund once a course is within 15 days (with rescheduling fees of $299 within 15 days and $399 within 72 hours), online and livestream purchases are final upon access, and the chargeback provision states that disputing a charge without first contacting Empire results in forfeiture of any refund, a ban from all future Empire programs, and the participant's agreement to be liable for Empire's legal fees, under exclusive Florida (Broward County) jurisdiction with prevailing-party attorney fees. Second, this document is reachable through a footer link but is not presented on the course and registration pages where payment actually occurs, so a buyer has to seek it out. Read it before committing, and confirm key representations about course content, faculty, CME status, and scheduling in writing.
Finally, Empire publishes its own side-by-side comparisons rating itself against named competitors. A reader can review these directly, while keeping in mind that they are authored by Empire and weighing how even-handed a provider's assessment of its own competition is likely to be.
Bottom line
Empire may be a reasonable fit for certain clinicians depending on timing, location, and goals, and its breadth and scale are real. But for a clinician whose aim is genuine competence in the one or two procedures their practice will actually offer, the more important questions are depth, supervision, class size, and total cost across all the dates required, not the size of the catalog. Do the due diligence: verify claims independently, read the contract, and evaluate total cost against educational value. If you are considering a membership, look first at the actual published schedules for the specific courses you want, estimate the travel and time off required to use them, and run that calculation before purchasing.

Frequently Asked Questions: Empire Medical Training

Is Empire Medical Training CME accredited?

Yes. Empire’s foundational Botox and dermal filler courses are accredited through AKH Inc. (Advancing Knowledge in Healthcare), which is jointly accredited by the ACCME, ACPE, and ANCC. Empire designates these core courses for 8.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits for physicians, 8.0 ANCC contact hours for nurses, and 8.0 AAPA Category 1 credits for physician assistants. This is broad, legitimate, multi-credential accreditation and is among the stronger accreditation arrangements in the field. Not every course in Empire’s catalog necessarily carries the same accreditation, so a buyer should confirm the exact credit type and hours for the specific course, date, and format before registering.

Does Empire’s “Complete Dermal Filler Training” course teach lip injections?

No. According to Empire’s own published course agenda, the hands-on practice in its “Complete Dermal Filler Training” course is limited to nasolabial folds and marionette lines. Lips, cheeks, and submalar volumizing are excluded from the hands-on and reserved for Empire’s separate Advanced Botox & Filler course. This is notable because Empire’s own materials describe lip injections as the largest single application for hyaluronic acid fillers in the face. A new injector could complete a course Empire markets as “Complete” without ever having injected a lip under supervision. To obtain supervised hands-on in lips and other high-demand filler areas, a buyer must purchase the Advanced course as well.

Who teaches and supervises Empire’s hands-on training?

Empire publishes a large faculty roster, but does not identify which instructor will teach any specific course date or location, so a buyer cannot verify their instructor’s credentials before paying. Empire’s course pages state that hands-on practice is “supervised by our Physician faculty,” but its current faculty page lists non-physician “Proctors” (nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and others) alongside physician “Lead Instructors,” and Empire’s own Terms and Conditions refer to a supervising “Physician or NP Instructor.” This means the live-injection supervisor at a given course may be a non-physician. Because supervising live injection is patient care involving prescription products, a non-physician proctor would need to be licensed in the state where the course is held and, where required, have appropriate physician collaboration. A buyer should confirm, in writing, who will teach and supervise their specific date.

How much does Empire Medical Training cost, and what is its class size?

Empire’s foundational Botox and dermal filler courses are priced at roughly $1,599 to $2,049 each, depending on location, with the Advanced course adding approximately another $1,699 to $2,049. Memberships range from about $7,299 to over $15,000. These prices do not include travel, lodging, and time away from practice across the multiple course dates a given training path may require. Empire does not publish a maximum hands-on class size on its course pages, so a buyer cannot determine the participant-to-instructor ratio or how much individual hands-on injecting time to expect before registering.

Is Empire’s AAOPM “board certification” an independent board certification?

No. The American Academy of Procedural Medicine (AAOPM) is not an independent third-party certifying body in relation to Empire. According to Empire’s own faculty page, AAOPM was co-created by Empire’s founder, Dr. Stephen Cosentino, and Empire’s vice-president. The AAOPM “board certification” pathway is marketed directly on Empire’s own course and accreditation pages, and the credential appears among Empire’s own faculty. Aesthetic medicine is also not a recognized specialty of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). A practitioner should treat an AAOPM credential as an internally governed designation rather than as independent board certification, and evaluate what recognition it carries beyond the organization that issues it.

Empire Medical Training Review and AAOPM Review

Updated May 22, 2026

Key Facts at a Glance…

Conclusion

Multi-Point Review of Empire Medical Botox Training and AAOPM Botox Training

Empire Ownership: Osteopath (DO). Other investor involvement is unknown.

1. 🟢CME Accreditation for MD, DO, NP, PA, RN's

2. 🟡Faculty Qualifications and Transparency

3. 🟢 / 🔴 Completeness of the First-Level Courses

Botulinum toxin (acceptable)

Dermal filler (could use improvement)

The cost of getting the rest

4. 🟢 Transparency Regarding Hands-On Product Provided in Tuition Cost.

5. 🔴Maximum Hands-On Class Size

6. 🟡Location Transparency

7. 🔴 Unaccredited Board Claims, Society Claims, or Membership Upsells

CME training NEVER expires, and Memberships are not a regulatory requirement

The "board certification" and its relationship to Empire

The surrounding sales structure

8. 🟢 Offers a Blended Online plus Live Learning Environment

9. 🟡Risk of Models and Model Recruitment for Hands-On

10. 🟡General Transparency, Cost, and Accessibility

The breadth-versus-depth question

The total cost picture

The much-advertised guarantee, read closely

Ratings versus reviews

A large faculty roster is not the same as knowing your instructor

Academic-sounding packaging

Marketing, institutional references, and contract terms