The hemocompatibility of polymeric vascular implants is in part dependent on the propensity of fibrinogen to adsorb to the implant surface. Fibrinogen surface adsorption was measured in real time using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). Six new, biodegradable tyrosine-derived polycarbonates were used as test surfaces. Stainless steel, poly(L-lactic acid), poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide), and poly(ethylene terephthalate) surfaces served as controls and provided a comparison of the test surfaces with those of commonly used biomaterials. Our study addressed the question regarding to which extent systematic variations in polymer structure can be used to optimize X-ray visibility and provide tunable degradation rates while generating protein-repellant surface properties that minimize fibrinogen adsorption. QCM-D revealed surface-dependent changes in fibrinogen layer thickness (2 to 37 nm), adsorbed wet mass (0.2 to 4.3 microg/cm2), and viscosity (0.001 to 0.005 kg/ms). While we did not find an overall correlation between surface air-water contact angle measurements and fibrinogen adsorption (R2 = 0.08), our data demonstrate that gradually increasing the poly(ethylene glycol) content within a subgroup of polymers having the same polymer backbone will lead to decreased fibrinogen adsorption. Within this subgroup of polymers, there was a strong correlation between decreasing air-water contact angles and decreasing fibrinogen adsorption (R2 = 0.95). We conclude that it is possible to minimize fibrinogen adsorption to tyrosine-derived polycarbonates while optimizing X-ray visibility and degradation rates. Some of the tyrosine-derived polycarbonates were identified as useful materials for the design of blood-contacting implants on the basis of their substantially lower levels of fibrinogen adsorption relative to the commonly used controls.