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Echocardiography has been used since decades by cardiologists, making it evolving at a tremendous speed.Its specialization led to a high-level knowledge, needing long and intense training and orientated towards a comprehensive examination.Nevertheless, a new approach has been more recently defined: focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS).Designed to be integrated in global patients management, its purposes are to be easy to learn, easy and fast to provide, reproducible, to give immediate information,to limit intra and inter-operator variability and finally, to allow immediate decision.It represents an important part of a growing vision: point-of-care clinical ultrasound(1, 2).Thus, it can be used by all practitioners working in situations (pre or intrahospital) were ultrasound helps continuously for a rapid diagnosis, an adapted treatment and/or procedure, and an optimal orientation.Objectives The aim of FoCUS is to provide immediate information to answer simple questions: Is there a problem with a particular part or function of the heart? If yes, can this problem be totally or partly responsible for the pathology of the patient? Several objectives have been defined: evaluation of pericardium, right/left cavities ratio and global myocardial contractility(3).Technique The aim of FoCUS is to acquire an overview of the heart through usual windows: sub-costal 4 chamber view, parasternal long and short axis views and apical 4 and 5 chamber views.Time to achieve each view has to be as short as possible.Basic level is using only 2D mode, except some color Doppler for valvular regurgitation highlighting(1-4).A Phased Array probe is the most adapted, but convex or micro-convex probes can also be of interest.Clinical impact Different acute syndromes can benefit of FoCUS.For example, in a case of a severely dyspneic patient, a question to answer could be is there a pericardial effusion? If yes, is effusion responsible for cardiac function impairment(tamponade)? If yes, can a treatment be provided immediately to improve patient state, including puncture? If no effusion, is the cardiac function normal or not?Are right cavities dilated? Etc.The process is ongoing until enough information is found and can follow already well-defined protocols (4-7).At each stage, FoCUS can be completed by other focused sonography (lung ultrasound, WC evaluation, search for a DVT, etc.).Education Several studies have shown that short educational programs integrating hands-on practice can provide sufficient knowledge for focused ultrasound(8-10).The minimum number of exams to reach optimal performance and autonomy stands between 25 and 30 for each anatomical region, including FoCUS(10).Conclusion As emphasized, FoCUSand other focused ultrasonography should be a natural part of everyday practice, particularly in emergency departments.It brings specific information to be integrated in the medical reasoning and combined with other data gathered during physical examination.