Established in 1989 by the Veterans Affairs, EBIRE is a nonprofit institute which administers basic and clinical research approved by the Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System (VANCHCS). Affiliated with the University of California - Davis School of Medicine, the VANCHCS serves over 417,000 veterans dispersed over approximately 40,000 square miles. The EBIRE-VANCHCS collaborative approach provides Veterans with the opportunity to participate in research, develops partnerships with medical and pharmaceutical industries to provide state-of-the-art care to Veterans, and fosters an environment for scientific and intellectual exchange.
Since
1978, we have been doing research which attempts to understand and address
specific speech and hearing difficulties faced by the large community
of veterans living in our community. Our research is headed by Dr. Pierre
Divenyi, whose research into what is known as the "Cocktail Party
Effect" has shed light onto the important aspects of the difficulties
in communicating that elderly individuals face on a day-to-day basis.