What is the name of House M.D.’s fictional diagnostic department leader?

Gregory House is the fictional diagnostic department leader in House M.D. He heads the hospital’s specialized diagnostic medicine team and is the central character of the series.

House is known for solving rare and complicated cases by forming hypotheses, ordering targeted tests, and revising his conclusions when new evidence appears. His methods are often confrontational, and he frequently breaks hospital rules or challenges patients and colleagues. The character’s medical specialty is diagnostic medicine, a field portrayed in the series as a collaborative but highly competitive process.

House’s position is distinct from the hospital’s overall administrative leadership. Lisa Cuddy serves as the hospital administrator for much of the series, while James Wilson leads oncology. Eric Foreman is one of House’s fellows and later holds senior leadership roles, but he is not the original title-character department leader. The name Gregory House also connects with the show’s inspiration from Sherlock Holmes: both figures are brilliant investigators whose surnames resemble the word “home” in different languages and whose methods rely on close observation and deduction.