During the last two decades there have been significant advances in thetreatment and understanding of the most prevalent bone diseases,osteoporosis and Paget's disease of bone. However,the situation regarding rare bone diseases is very different. There ismuch work to be done to better understand the science related to thesediseases and to develop treatments.

To address that situation, the U.S. Bone and Joint Decade in partnershipwith the Rare Bone Disease Patient Network organized a conference, 1st Advances in Rare Bone Diseases, that took place October 23-24, 2008, at the National Institutes of Health. AScientific Program Committee including recognized clinical andscientific leaders in the rare bone disease community and the broaderscientific community was organized to plan the conference.