Michael Anton Biermer

Who was Michael Anton Biermer?

Michael Anton Biermer was a German internist who was a native of Bamberg.

In 1851 he earned his doctorate from the University of Würzburg, where he was a student of Rudolf Virchow. Later he was a professor at Bern, Zurich and Breslau. Two of his better known students were surgeon Theodor Kocher in Zurich, and dermatologist Albert Neisser in Breslau.

Biermer is remembered for his 1872 description of a disorder he called "progressive pernicious anemia". He wrote about the disease in an article titled Über eine eigentümliche Form von progressiver, perniciöser Anaemie. He called it "pernicious anemia" because of the disease's insidious course, and because it was deemed to be untreatable at the time. In 1849, Thomas Addison described the same disease, however Biermer's description was much more comprehensive. Historically, pernicious anemia has also been called "Addison-Biermer disease".

His name is also associated with a medical percussion phenomenon known as "Biermer's change of note".