The national continuing medical education programs, established and developed for 27 years, play a significant role in talent cultivation for the health and wellness sector in China. This study introduces the historical evolution and development overview of these programs, analyses the number, subject distribution, geographical distribution, training attendance and credits awarded of programs in the year 2022. The results show that in 2022, there were a total of 22 790 programs from 31 provinces and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, covering 24 secondary subjects and 89 tertiary disciplines, with a total of 1 972 project applicant units, 10.8 million training attendances, and a total of 53 million continuing medical education credits awarded. As the number of programs continues to rise, routine management becomes more complex and difficult, and problems such as insufficient overall planning and unbalanced development of disciplines and geographic areas continue to emerge. Top-down overall planning is recommended that enables a diversity of continuing medical education activities, to adjust and improve the management and service of programs, so as to promote the sustainable development of programs in the new era.