The University of Massachusetts Memorial medical center in Worcester has performed the first cardiac transplant in Massachusetts outside of Boston.

The inauguration of heart transplants in Worcester, located in the center of Massachusetts, means that potential recipients in the central and western parts of the state won't have to travel to Boston to undergo transplants and to get post-transplant care, doctors said.

The cardiac transplant team that performed the three-hour operation was headed by James S. Gammie, surgical director of cardiac transplantation at UMass Memorial.