When a player declares an action that has an uncertain outcome, I will call for a check with a DC I feel is appropriate, with the ability I feel is most relevant. When I do so, the player is free to suggest that their proficiency in Medicine might be relevant. If the action involves diagnosing or treating an injury or ailment, or applying medical training, it is likely I will agree, and they can add their Proficiency Bonus. I could probably make up an example of a scenario and an action a hypothetical player might declare in the scenario that I would call for a Wisdom check to resolve if that exact situation occurred, and that I would be willing to allow Medicine proficiency to apply to. But I don’t believe that would be a valuable exercise. It involves too many assumptions to be practically useful, as it is highly unlikely for just such a scenario to come up in game. And in general I find that only bad things come from trying to guess in advance what actions the players might take and pre-planning checks and DCs for those assumed actions.
I didn’t answer the Frankenstein question because I don’t have enough context to make a ruling with any confidence. If you give me a scenario, and an action (with clear goal and approach), I can rule on it, but again, I don’t think doing so would be a valuable exercise, for either of us.
It’s not a question I am particularly interested in answering. But if you give me more context I’ll tell you how I would rule, if you want me to do that for some reason.
Neither of us is trained in the things your character is trained in. Any action you describe and I resolve is an abstraction of what your character might do. But you are still the one in control of your character, you have to be the one who says what they do. You don’t have to be especially detailed, just reasonably specific and concise. You’ve already described a fair few actions that satisfy that requirement.
Between the abstraction that separates what we say at the table from what occurs in the fiction, and the bonuses that you apply to checks in the event that a check is needed to resolve your action, I think that gap is pretty well accounted for.
You don’t have to go to a medical library. Just tell me what you intend to accomplish, and what your character does in the fiction to try and accomplish it. “I examine Bob’s symptoms to try and determine the best way to treat them” was a beautiful action declaration. It expresses your goal and your approach concisely and with a reasonable degree of specificity. You didn’t need to be a surgeon to do that.
So what kinds of things in fictions would you think might also be covered here?
Here is my perspective: Sharing ideas and experience helps players, DM's, and ourselves. There's no reason not to share examples and ideas. Sharing those ideas regardless of sharing DC's or not helps give people ideas. It's not possible to roleplay a character worse in having given them a better idea of what that character can do with that character as opposed to not knowing what that character can do.
I don't care about the DC's themselves. DC's are just sliders. I don't change the rules to give characters higher bonuses if I want the style to give more room -- I lower the DC's for the relative effect. Eg real history vs wuxia. The difference is created in making harder actions easier and impossible actions possible.
What's important is being on the same page between the players and the DM. If I'm the DM and I'm thinking different media than you (you're thinking bloodletting and humors and I'm thinking House) then there's a disconnect. Exercises like this can give a better general idea. Not just in different actions but different styles.
"I didn’t answer the Frankenstein question because I don’t have enough context to make a ruling with any confidence. If you give me a scenario, and an action (with clear goal and approach), I can rule on it, but again, I don’t think doing so would be a valuable exercise, for either of us."
I would ask why you wouldn't just create the context for the example. In a game you would have context and players giving that but for a hypothetical discussion on ideas anyone can give the context or ask what if. You don't need to wait for us to give ideas before you give answers, lol. I'm asking you for ideas too. Just pretend you're the DM and the player if it helps.
So what examples in media do you think you would be capable of if you were a player using medicine?