Method and apparatus for obtaining patient respiratory data

A system for collecting patient respiratory information includes a base unit and a removable mouthpiece unit. The mouthpiece unit includes sensors that sense parameters of a patient's breath when the patient blows into the mouthpiece unit. The base unit receives and processes the information from the mouthpiece unit and stores it in chronological fashion for later analysis by a physician. The mouthpiece unit includes a memory for storing identification information for a patient who has been assigned the mouthpiece unit. When the mouthpiece unit is inserted into the base unit, the base unit reads the identification information from the mouthpiece unit and stores all measurement information in association therewith. In this manner, a single base unit can be used to collect information for a plurality of different patients without creating confusion as to which measurement results correspond to which patients. A cable assembly can be disposed intermediate the mouthpiece unit and the base unit to allow the patient to view a display on the base unit while simultaneously exhaling into the mouthpiece unit.