 He also organized medical corps for the Eastern Front on the pretext of anti-communism.Bircher was a physician (Chief Surgeon 1917 - 1932, Director 1932/34 of "Kantonsspital Aarau") by trade and in the 1920s published several ground-breaking papers detailing arthroscopy procedures on the knee.Bircher is often considered the inventor of arthroscopy of the knee, although the Japanese surgeon Masaki Watanabe receives primary credit for using arthroscopy for interventional surgery.