In House M.D., which character leads the hospital as dean of medicine?

In House M.D., Lisa Cuddy leads the hospital as dean of medicine.

Cuddy is the dean of medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital and serves as Gregory House's administrative superior. She is responsible for hospital operations, staffing, budgets, and the difficult balance between House's unconventional methods and institutional rules. Her position repeatedly forces her to defend the hospital while also recognizing House's unusual diagnostic ability.

The character is played by Lisa Edelstein. Cuddy and House have a long professional history, and their relationship develops through arguments, mutual reliance, and romantic tension. Cuddy often permits House more freedom than another administrator might, but she also imposes limits when his conduct threatens patients, colleagues, or the hospital.

Cuddy is sometimes described simply as the hospital's administrator, but dean of medicine is the title used for her senior leadership role in the series. She is not the head of Diagnostic Medicine; that department belongs to House. James Wilson, meanwhile, heads Oncology, making the hospital's hierarchy an important part of the show's recurring conflicts.