The Radiation Medicine department of the college of medicine was accredited at inception as an x-ray department to teach undergraduate medical students in 1970 immediately after the Civil War. It was then headed by late Dr. M. A. C. Ogakwu D.M.R.D., the first Nigerian Radiologist. In 19771 it was upgraded to a Department of Radiation Medicine with a view to training not just medical students but also Radiologists. It was also envisaged that nuclear medicine and Radiotherapy facilities would later be added to the pre-existing Radiodiagnostic unit. An indigenous professor, Prof B.C. Umerah, senior lecturers Dr. A. C. Ude and Dr. A. Ofodile, and a junior lecturer, Dr. I. Orakwe formed the nucleus of the embryonic teaching staff at this stage. Till date more than seventy resident doctors have so far been successfully trained as Radiologists under the Fellowship programmes of the West African College of Surgeons and the Nigerian Postgraduate Medical College in this Department.

Presently the department of radiation medicine is on the road to rediscovery to reposition itself for the challenges of the digital age through well-thought efforts in equipment acquisition and human capital developments.