The seventh annual ASA DataFest at the University of Notre Dame hosted 10 teams with 31 student participants.  This took place March 20 through March 22, 2026.

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For this competition, students analyzed data provided by Stormont Vail Health, a nonprofit integrated health system that has served Kansas communities for more than 130 years. Guided by a mission to improve community health through high-quality, collaborative care, Stormont Vail operates 35 locations, including acute care hospitals, a behavioral health center, urgent care clinics, and a range of specialty services. The system manages substantial annual patient volume, encompassing hundreds of thousands of clinic visits, outpatient services, virtual encounters, and inpatient discharges.

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The dataset centered on patient experience data, offering students the opportunity to examine how individuals interact with the health system across different points of care. Teams were tasked with characterizing patient journeys, identifying patterns in how patients access and move through services, and highlighting opportunities to better align care delivery with patient needs. As with many real-world healthcare datasets, the data presented challenges related to variability in patient pathways, differences across service lines, and the complexity of integrating information from multiple care settings.

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This project encouraged students to think critically about healthcare delivery from a systems perspective, using data to uncover actionable insights that could inform improvements in patient experience, care coordination, and overall system responsiveness.