A software system provides an interface between a radiology information system and a central dictation system. The software includes first and second application modules which are both in communication with a database management system. Other components of the software system include protocol DLL's (dynamic linked libraries) and a communication DLL. Each of the software components maintains a separate trace buffer. An event occurring in any one of the components triggers a dump of all of the trace buffers. A server socket object is maintained in existence and placed in an accept mode when a client socket terminates communication with the server socket object.