What is the name of House’s fictional medical department in House, M.D.?

House leads the fictional Department of Diagnostic Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.

The department investigates patients whose symptoms do not fit an obvious diagnosis or whose previous doctors have failed to identify the cause. House assembles a small team of fellows, assigns possible explanations, and uses tests, observation, and debate to narrow the differential diagnosis.

Diagnostic medicine is a real medical concept, but the show’s department and its unusually broad authority are fictionalized for drama. In real hospitals, diagnosis is generally shared across primary-care doctors, hospitalists, laboratory specialists, radiologists, and organ-specific consultants rather than concentrated in one celebrity diagnostician.

The department is distinct from House’s board certifications and from Wilson’s oncology practice. Its name also changes in practical importance as hospital leadership and House’s teams change. Nevertheless, “Diagnostic Medicine” is the department most consistently associated with House’s work.