The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha announced today that it has hired Doctor Deepak Gangahar, a top Lincoln heart surgeon.

Gangahar will start February first to oversee the re-opening of the center's transplant program, which close in 1998.

Gangahar came to Lincoln in 1978 to begin his practice. A pioneer in cardiac surgery, Gangahar performed the first heart transplant in Nebraska in 1986 and the first lung transplant in the state in 1992.

He will also become chief of the thoracic and cardiovascular surgery section at the medical center.

Some Lincoln physicians are skeptical of the move saying it will create too much competition and take too many heart transplants away from surgeons in Lincoln.

Gangahar started his career in Nebraska at Bryan LGH Medical Center in Lincoln. In 2001, he and other surgeons started the Nebraska Heart Institute. Shortly thereafter, the group later split from Bryan LGH and started the $44 million Nebraska Heart Hospital, which opened in Lincoln last May.