Radiology · Clinical Leadership · Abeokuta

MB.BS · FWACS · FMCR

Dr. Cynthia
Oludolapo Akisanya

Chief Consultant Radiologist, Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta

Diagnosis is a discipline. So is building the institution that delivers it.

More than three decades in clinical medicine, over twenty of them at consultant level, spent reading the images that decide care and building the services that make that reading possible. She raised a radiology department from an empty room to a CT-equipped service, led clinical operations across a hospital of sixty-four consultants, and now helps set the national standard by which radiologists are certified.

Get in touch See the record Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Cynthia Oludolapo Akisanya, Chief Consultant Radiologist
30+
years in clinical medicine
20+
years at consultant level
64
consultants on the council she chaired
15
peer-reviewed publications
01

A diagnostician who builds

Two kinds of work run through her career. One is diagnostic: the disciplined reading of neuroimaging and breast studies on which clinical decisions turn. The other is structural, the slower and less visible task of building the departments, systems, and people that let a hospital function.

She has operated at a high level in both, and it is the second that most distinguishes her. When she returned from residency at University College Hospital, Ibadan in 2003, the radiology department at Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta barely existed. Over nine years as its head, she assembled it in deliberate stages, from plain radiography and fluoroscopy through ultrasound and mammography to a sixteen-slice CT scanner, turning a non-functioning unit into a working diagnostic service.

That record carried her into hospital-wide leadership. Across two tenures as Head of Clinical Services she oversaw every clinical department, chaired the Medical Advisory Council of all sixty-four consultants, deputised for the Medical Director, and sat on the board of management. Her appointment to the Radiology Faculty Board of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria places her among those who examine and certify the country's radiologists.

Her contributions to the SIREN multinational stroke research network appear in The Lancet Global Health and Stroke, and her advanced training has taken her to teaching centres in the United Kingdom, the United States, Egypt, and the Netherlands. The throughline is consistent: read accurately, build deliberately, and leave behind people and systems better than she found them.

02

Where she leads

Clinical leadership & governance

Direction of hospital-wide clinical services, the chairing of consultant councils, and the policy work that keeps a complex institution running. Includes deputising at Medical Director level and statutory board membership.

Institution & capacity building

The build of a radiology department from the ground up: equipment, workflow, and accreditation. A pattern of standing up units, including the hospital's first procurement function, and seeing them through to maturity.

Specialist training & certification

The training of resident doctors toward fellowship, teaching on national revision courses, and a seat on the faculty board that sets examination standards for radiology in Nigeria.

Diagnostic authority

Subspecialty depth in neuroradiology and breast imaging, supported by advanced practice in cross-sectional CT and vascular ultrasound, and continuing fellowships across three continents.

03

Selected record

A department, built from nothing

From a non-functioning unit to plain film, fluoroscopy, ultrasound, mammography, and sixteen-slice CT, assembled across nine years as Head of Department.

2003 – 2012

Clinical services, hospital-wide

Chairing the Medical Advisory Council of all sixty-four consultants, channelling its decisions into policy, and acting for the Medical Director.

2012 – 2016

Setting the national standard

A seat on the Radiology Faculty Board of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, where the specialty's examinations are governed.

2017 – 2021 · 2025 –

Research that crosses borders

A contributor within the SIREN stroke research network spanning Ghana and Nigeria, with work in The Lancet Global Health and Stroke.

SIREN Consortium

Two subspecialties, deep

Neuroradiology and breast imaging at the core, with advanced cross-sectional CT and vascular ultrasound practice around them.

Subspecialty focus

Trained across three continents

Fellowships and observerships at teaching centres in the United Kingdom, the United States, Egypt, and the Netherlands.

2009 – 2020
04

The work, in detail

01

Building a diagnostic service from zero

She inherited a radiology department in name only. Over nine years as its head, she built it into a functioning service, adding capability in deliberate stages while concurrently standing up the hospital's first procurement unit, a function that has since grown into a full department in its own right. By the time she handed it on, the department was running modern imaging across multiple modalities.

9 years as HeadX-ray to 16-slice CTFirst procurement unit
02

Running clinical operations at scale

Two tenures as Head of Clinical Services placed every clinical department under her oversight. She chaired the Medical Advisory Council, the assembly of all sixty-four consultants, carried its recommendations into hospital policy, and acted for the Medical Director during his absences. Across her watch the hospital recorded strong fellowship-examination outcomes and clean accreditation and re-accreditation visits.

64 consultants chairedActed for the MDTwo tenures
03

Shaping who qualifies

Her influence now reaches past any single hospital. As a member of the Radiology Faculty Board of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, she helps set and apply the standards by which the next generation of radiologists is examined and certified, work she extends through teaching on national revision courses and the direct training of resident doctors toward fellowship.

National faculty boardResident trainingRevision-course faculty
05

Record & standing

Qualifications

  • FMCR · Fellowship, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Radiology 2003
  • FWACS · Fellowship, West African College of Surgeons, Radiology 2003
  • MB.BS · University of Benin 1990
  • Residency training, University College Hospital, Ibadan 1998 – 2003

Selected publications

  • Determinants of stroke fatality across 16 hospitals in Ghana and Nigeria. The Lancet Global Health, 2023.
  • Risk factor characterization of ischaemic stroke subtypes among West Africans. Stroke, 2022.
  • Carotid and vertebral atherosclerosis in West African stroke patients. Nigerian Medical Journal, 2022.
  • A novel Afrocentric stroke risk assessment score. J. Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases, 2021.
  • Fifteen peer-reviewed publications in total, with contributions to the SIREN consortium.

International training

  • Great Ormond Street Hospital, London Paediatric neuroradiology
  • Nottingham Breast Institute, UK Breast imaging
  • Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia Vascular US & body CT
  • University of Washington, Seattle Health leadership & management
  • Kasr Al-Ainy, Cairo · Philips Academy, Netherlands

Memberships & honours

  • European Society of Radiology, and the Nigerian and West African radiological associations
  • Breast Imaging & Neuroradiological Societies of Nigeria
  • Best Candidate, Part I & II fellowship examinations, both colleges 2000, 2003
  • Prizes for best dissertation and best clinical performance 2003
  • JCI Outstanding Young Person, Ogun State 2006
06

Get in touch

For clinical, academic, advisory, or speaking enquiries. Her full curriculum vitae is available to download below.

Email
dollyseg@gmail.com
Telephone
+234 803 3312 634
Based in
Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria
Curriculum Vitae
Download (PDF)