The PD at the new NYP program (Dr. Wally Carter) said on interview day that, due to the academic requirement, 80% of EM research is "crap", because people just do SOMETHING to fulfill the requirement. I think the new program at USF is the only one that doesn't require a scholarly project.
EM docs are notoriously not happy with doing research (so, if you can get published, do it! If they think you'll be their publication person, that REALLY helps), so the places that have a hard research bent sometimes don't have the most stellar clinicians (there are a few stars, that are as good writing a paper as they are with patients, but they are rare), with residents being more head and not as much hands.
About the new techie stuff, I can't say. Sorry!