Patent ID: 8097269

Claim:
A medical device comprising a structural element and a bioactive material reservoir, wherein said bioactive material reservoir comprises a coating applied to the surface of said structural element wherein said coating comprises one or more layers and wherein at least one of said layers comprises a matrix composition having an inorganic oxide formed using a sol-gel process wherein the inorganic oxide is compounded with an agent that modifies a characteristic of said inorganic oxide selected from the group consisting of hydrophobicity, charge, biocompatibility, mechanical properties, bioactive material affinity, storage capacity, and combinations thereof wherein the environment of said sol-gel process was is tailored to the characteristics of a bioactive material to be incorporated into said matrix composition said tailoring affecting the amount of said bioactive material within said matrix composition once formed and/or the rate of release of said bioactive material into the physiological environment once implanted in a patient.