Lisa Cuddy oversees medicine as the dean of medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in House M.D. She is also the hospital's administrator and House's supervisor.
Cuddy's role places her above the diagnostic department and gives her responsibility for balancing patient care, staffing, finances, and institutional rules. Her professional relationship with House is difficult because she values his diagnostic ability but must respond to his disregard for procedure.
The wording matters because Cuddy is a doctor, but the series identifies her leadership position as dean of medicine rather than as the head of a narrower specialty such as surgery or oncology. Her administrative work is a major part of her character's function.
Lisa Edelstein played Cuddy through the show's seventh season. Cuddy's departure changes House's professional circumstances and contributes to the transition into the final season. This is distinct from her earlier clinical background and from Wilson's specialty of oncology.