Abstract: Data transferred between DICOM devices located at a hospital or clinic to external storage and retrieval systems are formatted in accordance with a four layer protocol. The first layer includes an NDMA socket protocol. The second layer includes an NDMA header and is nested within the first layer. The third layer includes XML text nested within the second layer, and the fourth layer includes DICOM, or other binary data, that is nested within the third layer. This multi-layered data structure provides DICOM interactions with medical devices within the hospital secure network to be coupled with external communications mechanisms which can acquire or store NDMA content while maintaining the integrity of the hospital/clinic network security and incorporating strong firewall-like protections.