[en] A growing interest in medical uses for high energy heavy ion beams has led to two recent proposals to build dedicated medical heavy ion synchrotrons. Linear accelerators are generally preferred as injectors for synchrotrons, but in the case of heavy ions with relatively low charge to mass ratios, the required linacs are extremely large, and/or complex, low frequency structures. Cyclotrons were therefore initially proposed as the injectors for the medical synchrotrons. Recently a new radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linac structure has been developed. Its excellent capture, beam transport and acceleration characteristics for low velocity ion beams makes it ideally suited as a heavy ion synchrotron injector either alone or in combination with a drift tube linac