Sam Parnia is a British associate professor of Medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center where he is also director of research into cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the United Kingdom, he is director of the Human Consciousness Project at the University of Southampton. Parnia is known for his work on near-death experiences and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Parnia is known for his involvement in the field of emergency medicine and cardiac arrest resuscitation, which is considered to be his field of expertise. One of his areas of concentration has been in the incorporation of cerebral oximetry during cardiac arrest care as a marker of the quality of oxygen delivery to the brain during resuscitation.

As a member of the Consciousness Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, he has also published theories on the nature of human mind and consciousness. This research has included investigation of near-death experiences. Parnia is often confronted with the paranormal aspect of his research, and the resistance to the type of studies that he is conducting in the mind/brain-area. His answer has been that he does not consider it to be paranormal, but to represent a new field of science.