Faculty
Core Faculty

RICARDO FRANCO-SADUD, M.D.
Ricardo Franco-Sadud, M.D.
Ricardo Franco-Sadud, M.D. is an associate professor of medicine and academic hospitalist at the Naples Community Hospital (NCH). He joined NCH in 2017, to develop a new academic hospitalist team, in order to support a newly created Internal Medicine Residency Program (affiliated to Mayo School of Medicine and Science). He joined NCH after Medical College of Wisconsin, where he successfully established a Bedside Procedure Service that has rapidly expanded in scope and volume of procedures. The MCW bedside procedure service is still successful, and currently performs procedures for internal medicine, hematology/oncology, cardiology and transplant surgery. He intends to use this expertise in bedside ultrasound to train Internal Medicine residents at NCH on common bedside procedures and Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) for bedside diagnosis and therapeutic decisions.
He imported this concept from Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois where he established and directed the service from 2007-2015. While at Cook County Hospital, his procedure service included 5 attending physicians and one nurse. Initially, the service performed common bedside procedures but the scope was eventually expanded to include bedside core-needle biopsies of lymph nodes and insertion of tunneled catheters under fluoroscopy. He also participated in the only hospitalist study to assess the impact of hand carried ultrasound on the care of patients with chest pain at Cook County Hospital.
As a dedicated educator, he has earned the Osler Award for Ward Teaching Attending on 2007 and 2012 at Cook County Hospital, Medical Student Teacher Award at MCW in 2017 and Inpatient Teaching Attending Award at NCH Internal Medicine Residency Program at NCH in 2018 and 2020. Dr. Franco-Sadud has participated in many local and national continuing medical education events to teach applications of portable ultrasound, including the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Point-of-care Ultrasound for the Hospitalist Pre-course since 2010.

ALIMER GONZALEZ, M.D.
Alimer Conzalez, M.D.
Dr. Gonzalez graduated Summa Cum Laude from Wake Forest University where he was part of their 2007 National Championship winning soccer team. He obtained his M.D. from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) honor medical society. He went on to complete his training in Internal Medicine at Harvard University's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. After finishing residency, he worked as a hospitalist at Massachusetts General Hospital. As Harvard faculty, he helped develop a curriculum for Morbidity and Mortality Conference within the hospitalist group, in addition to several other quality improvement projects. As a native Floridian, he returned to South Florida to join the teaching faculty of the Mayo Clinic affiliated Internal Medicine residency program at Naples Community Hospital (NCH). He is currently an academic hospitalist and serves as the NCH site director of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine 3rd year medical student clerkship in Internal Medicine/Family Medicine. He was awarded the NCH inpatient medicine teaching faculty of the year award during his first year with the program.

CHARLES GRAEBER, M.D.
Charles Graeber, M.D.
Dr. Graeber is a graduate of Rush Medical University, with residency and fellowship training at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He is a board certified Nephrologist with extensive experience in medical education and innovation. As Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Connecticut Medical School, he served as Associate Program Director for the University of Connecticut Primary Care Internal Residency, where he won numerous teaching awards.
His academic interests include fluid and electrolyte disorders and acids - base disturbances. He enjoys working with residents and students at all levels and plans to be an integral part of the daily routine for residents and Chief Residents during their tenure at NCH Healthcare System, Inc.
Marine Biology and following the Boston Red Sox and Celtics fill his spare time.

DOUGLAS W. HARRINGTON, D.O.
Douglas W. Harrington, D.O., FCCP
Dr. Harrington is a pulmonary critical care physician, formal training at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where he completed internal medicine residency, chief medical resident year, and a pulmonary critical care fellowship. Subsequently practiced and taught at MGCH, a teaching institution in Michigan. Dr. Harrington relocated from Michigan to Naples Florida in 2003. Dr. Harrington is an Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency program. Actively involved in the initiation and establishment of the internal medicine residency at NCH. Dr. Harrington has received numerous teaching awards, while training at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit Michigan, subsequently while at MCGH in Michigan and subsequently at NCH. Dr. Harrington recently completed a year-long sabbatical/fellowship at Mayo Clinic in simulation medicine. Dr. Harrington is presently leading the initiative to establish a state-of-the-art multidisciplinary simulation center at NCH which will be an integral part in the internal medicine resident education. Dr. Harrington holds academic appointments at Mayo Clinic as an adjunct Assistant Professor of medicine and at University Central Florida as associate Professor of medicine.
Dr. Harrington's focus of medical education is patient and learner centered with concentration on bedside rounds, echo skills, critical thinking and applying evidence base medicine with physiological understanding to improve outcomes.

HERMES KOOP, M.D.
Hermes Koop, M.D.
Dr. Koop has been practicing General Internal Medicine in Naples since 1992. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas and subsequently completed his internship and residency training at the Good Samaritan Medical Center and V.A. Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. He has been board certified in Internal Medicine since 1987 and he became board certified in Critical Care Medicine in 1991. After practicing for 5 years near San Antonio, Texas he moved his family to Naples. In Naples he has practiced in both solo and group practice settings. He started his current concierge practice in 2009.
He has been very active and proud of his affiliation with the NCH Healthcare System. For six years he served as President of the Medical Staff and he has also served as Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Chairman of the Credentials Committee. He has recently completed serving on the Board of Trustees for the NCH Healthcare System including being Chairman of the Board Quality and Patient Satisfaction Committee.
Dr. Koop achieved Fellowship in the American College of Physicians in 1992. He was honored to be recognized as the NCH Healthcare Physician of the Year in 2006.
Dr. Koop was born in Baghdad, Iraq to Dutch parents and traveled the world while growing up. He lived in the Middle East, the Netherlands, England, Nigeria and the United States before finishing high school in Australia. His undergraduate studies were at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He became a U.S. citizen in 1984.
Dr. Koop is married and has four children. His wife Joan, a registered nurse, has helped manage his practice over the years. They had triplet boys in 1988 named Nico, Hans and Andree. The boys were followed by a daughter, Anneke, in 1990. The Koops enjoy traveling, sailing and visiting with family, especially Dr. Koop's family in the Netherlands and Joan's family in Texas.

JEFFREY HOWLAND, M.D.

GREGORY RUBIN, D.O.

ROBERT GROSSMAN, M.D.
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Brian R. Pulford, MD, MBA
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